Knuckles the Echidna (ナックルズ・ザ・エキドゥナ,Nakkuruzu za Ekiduna?) is a fictional character in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is a red anthropomorphicechidna who is determined and serious but sometimes gullible. He can glide and climb up walls, and is a powerful fighter due to his spiked hands. He serves as the guardian of the Master Emerald, a huge gemstone that controls the series' integral Chaos Emeralds.

Knuckles debuted in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in 1994 after Doctor Eggman tricks him into opposing Sonic and Tails. He first became playable in Sonic & Knuckles later that year; he learns of Eggman's trickery and teams up with Sonic during that game's events. Since then he has appeared in dozens of playable and non-playable roles, as well as in several series of comic books, Western animated television, and Japanese anime.

His reception from critics has been positive; he has been praised frequently as tough and cool-looking and is one of the series' most popular and recurring characters, although some have voiced disapproval of the Sonic series' extensive cast of characters and singled out Knuckles as ushering them in.[8] His likeness has frequently appeared in Sonic merchandise.

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During conception of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the development team wanted to create a new rival for Sonic.[9] The final design of Knuckles was the result of dozens of possible designs inspired by numerous different animals.[9][10] The emphasis of the character was to break walls.[11] He was originally planned to have a Jamaican accent and a name called 'Dreds' referring to his dreadlocks.[12]

Knuckles was created by developer Takashi Yuda, who never intended him to be any more than a "supporting character".[13] Knuckles was introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as an "intimidator" because of his powerful abilities.[14] He was given a headlining role in the next game, Sonic & Knuckles, where he made his first appearance as a playable character.[15]

Knuckles is an anthropomorphic echidna with red fur that covers most of his body, peach skin that covers his muzzle, and white fur that covers a small part of his neck, and purple eyes. He also has seven spines and a medium-sized tail along with spiked knuckles.

He wears red and yellow shoes with green cuffs and a grey plate on top. He also wears white gloves with a sock-like cuffs on his hands.

Knuckles was born alone and raised on Angel Island[16][17] as the last surviving member of the Knuckles Clan, a long-lost race of echidnas devoted to protecting the Master Emerald from being abused. However, Knuckles' own past was a mystery to him; he knew nothing how he came to be and believed himself to be the last of his kind entirely. The one thing he did know was that he had always been living on his island, protecting the Master Emerald. Knuckles knew from an innate knowledge that his duty was his fate, and he was content with that.[18]

For much of his life, Knuckles stayed close to the Master Emerald's shrine, steadfastly protecting it while having little to no contact with the outside world, becoming friends with all the animals and the nature itself on Angel Island.[17]

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Knuckles was on his usual patrol of the island's pillar, watching over the Master Emerald and the seven Chaos Emeralds, where a Chaos Emerald started to float and vibrate as tremors began. Then, in an ear-piercing crash and brilliant flash, Knuckles was knocked unconscious. When he came to, Knuckles found the altar partially destroyed and the Chaos Emeralds missing. Shocked, Knuckles investigated the island and discovered the Death Egg had crash-landed on Angel Island, its impact having pushed the island into the sea. This sight made Knuckles recall a prophecy depicted on murals in the Hidden Palace Zone that said that a dragon would bring disaster to the island.[17]

Over the next days, Knuckles patrolled the island while looking for the Chaos Emeralds, where he met Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Robotnik told him he was conducting research on the Death Egg to prevent disaster and that two people, named Sonic and Tails, were coming to steal the Master Emerald. Due to his seclusion, Knuckles believed Robotnik and made it his goal to stop Sonic and Tails and keep them from Robotnik, not realizing that he was being used by Robotnik to keep the duo at bay while he rebuilt the Death Egg.[17][19]

Knuckles launching his ambush on Sonic.

When Sonic arrived on the island as Super Sonic with Tails, Knuckles pulled a cheap shot[19] on Sonic that forced the Chaos Emeralds out of him, which Knuckles escaped with and hid away. As Sonic and Tails traveled across Angel Island, Knuckles attempted to stop the duo in Angel Island Zone, Hydrocity Zone, Carnival Night Zone and Launch Base Zone with his traps. As Sonic tried to board the Death Egg, Knuckles kept Sonic from getting close until tremors caused him to fall.

As Sonic and Tails continued to explore the island, Knuckles opposed them with traps in Mushroom Hill Zone and Lava Reef Zone. However, as Sonic and Tails arrived in the Hidden Palace Zone, Knuckles faced Sonic in an epic showdown but lost.[19] After his defeat, Knuckles heard an explosion at the Master Emerald's shrine and discovered that Robotnik was stealing the Master Emerald to power the Death Egg. Realizing he had been deceived, Knuckles tried to stop Robotnik but was electrocuted as the doctor escaped. Befriending Sonic and Tails, Knuckles guided them to the Sky Sanctuary Zone from where they could board the Death Egg, though he was too exhausted to accompany them. Fortunately, Sonic and Tails returned with the Master Emerald to Angel Island, and Knuckles watched as his new friends and allies left the island in the Tornado.

Knuckles facing Mecha Sonic.

Unfortunately for Knuckles, the peace came to a halt when one of the Eggrobos, under orders from Robotnik to eliminate Knuckles, attacked him with a bomb as he was relaxing in the Mushroom Hill Zone. Through luck or toughness, Knuckles survived the explosion and set off to defeat EggRobo.[19] Knuckles followed Eggrobo to Sky Sanctuary Zone where it grabbed him with its Egg Mobile and brought it before Mecha Sonic, who had stolen the Master Emerald, threatening to make Angel Island fall once more. However, Knuckles escaped the Egg Mobile before Mecha Sonic could kill him, resulting in EggRobo's destruction. As Knuckles fought Mecha Sonic, the robot used the Master Emerald to go Super. Though Knuckles beat it, the fight caused their arena to crumble. Fortunately, Knuckles and the Master Emerald were rescued by Sonic in the Tornado, and the two returned to Angel Island with the Master Emerald. Having saved Angel Island again, Knuckles and Sonic departed ways once more.

Knuckles eventually found Sonic and Tails where he warned Sonic spitefully that he would never get the Emeralds, before escaping.[21] Knuckles then attempted several times to oppose Sonic and Tails' quest, but when he faced Sonic and Tails head on using an underwater vehicle, he was defeated. Following his defeat, Knuckles was imprisoned in the Atomic Destroyer Zone by Dr. Robotnik, but he was soon freed by Sonic and Tails. Making up with Sonic and Tails, Knuckles escapes from Robotnik's base alongside the duo.

In Knuckles' Chaotix, a few months after Sonic & Knuckles, Knuckles noticed a new island had risen from the southern ocean as a result of tectonic activity simulated by the Master Emerald's presence when Angel Island sank into the sea and was now rapidly flourishing due to the Master Emerald's pillar. Curious, Knuckles speculated it held the remains of the Knuckles Clan and that something there was amplifying the power of the Master Emerald's pillar. Duty-bound, Knuckles left to investigate the island.[22] When he got there, Knuckles noticed that it had been converted into the Newtrogic High Zone by Dr. Robotnik who sought to synthesize Dark Rings to help him steal the Master Emerald. Knuckles soon found Robotnik and made him to flee with Metal Sonic as he was trapping Espio the Chameleon in his Combi Catcher. Knuckles then freed Espio, and they teamed up to free Robotnik's other captives and thwart the doctor's plans.

Together, Knuckles and Espio freed the captives Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee and Mighty the Armadillo, who also joined them, forming the Chaotix. Having collected the prestigious Chaos Rings, Knuckles and his crew stopped Robotnik's usage of the Dark Rings on several occasions. In the final showdown, the team was attacked by Metal Sonic, though the resulting battle made them fall into another room where Knuckles and the others were attacked by a large, Metal Sonic-like robot, Robotnik's final trump card. Regardless, Knuckles and the Chaotix still defeated it, thus restoring peace to the island.

In Sonic the Fighters, Dr. Robotnik built the Death Egg II from where he planned to conquer Earth with his robots. To face this threat, Knuckles entered a fighting tournament where the winner got to collect all the Chaos Emeralds which belonged to the other participants, himself included. This would earn him the right to use the Emeralds for Tails' single-seat Lunar Fox and travel to the Death Egg II and destroy it. At the end of the tournament, the victor used the Chaos Emeralds to go to the Death Egg II and made it self-destruct moments after escaping it.

In Sonic 3D Blast, Knuckles joined Sonic and Tails on their trip to Flicky Island. Having heard legends that the Flickies on the island held the key to finding the Chaos Emeralds, the group journeyed to there to find these birds. When they got there, however, the island was in pandemonium because of Dr. Robotnik who had built a base on the island from where he turned the Flickies into Badniks and used them to search for the Chaos Emeralds on the island.[23] As such, Knuckles worked together with Sonic and Tails to find the Chaos Emeralds, helping their hedgehog friend save the Flicklies and defeat Robotnik.

In Sonic Blast, Knuckles teamed up with Sonic when Dr. Robotnik planned to use the shattered pieces of a Chaos Emerald to fortify his Silver Castle, knowing that he had to step in if Sonic would not be there to stop the crisis.[24] In the end, the heroes secured the Emeralds and destroyed Robotnik's fortress.

In certain versions of the instruction manual for Sonic Blast, it is implied Knuckles saved Sonic's life when Dr. Robotnik tried to destroy the hedgehog with a laser beam from the distance. Seeing this, Knuckles would throw a Chaos Emerald to stop the laser beam, which would be effective but also shatter the gem into pieces, starting the events of the game.

In Sonic R, Knuckles heard from an advertisement that the World Grand Prix, a racing competition to determine the fastest in the world, was about to take place. Hearing Sonic was participating, Knuckles entered too, not willing to miss the chance to settle his score with Sonic.[25]

At the World Grand Prix, Knuckles not only went up against Sonic but also his other friends, Tails and Amy, as well as his nemesis Dr. Robotnik, who planned to locate the Chaos Emeralds on the race tracks using his new, metallic inventions.

He is considered an ally to Sonic in this game, helping him retrieve the Chaos Emeralds to allow Sonic to go super. In the end, the heroes kept Robotnik from getting the Chaos Emeralds, securing world safety again.

In Sonic Adventure, as Knuckles was falling asleep beside the Master Emerald at its altar while lamenting the story of his life, he awoke to find Chaos next to the shattered Master Emerald. Assuming Chaos broke the relic, Knuckles attacked it, but it blindsided him and escaped. With the Master Emerald gone, Angel Island fell into the sea. Knuckles thus began searching for the Master Emerald's wide-scattered Emerald Shards, but after finding a few, he was pulled into the past Mystic Ruins by Tikal's spirit, when the Knuckles Clan stilled thrived, where he saw Tikal trying to convince Pachacamac to abandon his war efforts.

Back in the present, Knuckles spotted Dr. Eggman and a shining object in the doctor's hands, which he believed to be an Emerald Shard but discovered it was a Chaos Emerald when he corned Eggman. Eggman called in Chaos 1 and transformed it into Chaos 2, but Knuckles still recognized it and beat it. Afterward, before leaving, Eggman told Knuckles that Sonic was after the Emerald Shards as well, which filled Knuckles' mind with doubts. After finding more Emerald Shards, Knuckles found Sonic and Tails. Seeing something shining in Sonic's hands, Knuckles believed it was Emerald Shards, and attacked the duo until Sonic dropped them, and they were revealed to be Chaos Emeralds. Eggman then showed up to nab the Emeralds, mocking Knuckles with how easy it was to trick him into assisting him steal the Emeralds, and gave them to Chaos 2, turning it into Chaos 4. After defeating Chaos 4, Knuckles left to find the remaining Emerald Shards while Sonic and Tails chased Eggman's Egg Carrier.

Knuckles was soon after sent back to the past after finding more shards where he saw Tikal trying to convince Chaos to flee the Altar of the Emeralds along with the Chao. Finding himself back at the present-day altar, Knuckles tried restoring the Master Emerald, only to see it still missing a few pieces. From an image inside the Master Emerald, Knuckles saw the Egg Carrier and deduced it was there where the last Emerald Shards remained. Knuckles soon after stumbled upon E-102 Gamma and trailed the robot to the Egg Carrier where Knuckles found the remaining shards, only to be sent to the past again, this time to see the altar ablaze where he tried asking Tikal what was going on but was immediately sent back to the present. Back on the Egg Carrier, Knuckles briefly met Sonic as he was heading after Eggman. As Knuckles wished Sonic well, the latter left the echidna to battle off Chaos 6. Knuckles subsequently defeated Chaos and got retrieved its six Chaos Emeralds before returning home with all the Emeralds and Emerald Shards where he restored the Master Emerald, allowing it to return Angel Island back to the sky.

Not long after, the Angel Island fell down again, and Knuckles decided to find Sonic to ask for advice, believing the Chaos Emeralds he brought back had something to do with it. Soon after, however, he discovered Eggman and was ambushed by Chaos, who took his Chaos Emeralds. Later found by Sonic and Tails, Knuckles informed them of Chaos's return and that it would destroy the world using the Chaos Emeralds, before taking off himself to deal with the threat. Arriving in Station Square where Perfect Chaos was on a rampage, Knuckles found four of the now-drained Chaos Emeralds and brought them to Sonic while his other friends brought the remaining three, where he reluctantly agreed with Tails that Sonic could still harness the Chaos Emeralds' positive chaos energy to stop Chaos.

After Super Sonic had defeated Perfect Chaos, Knuckles looked on with content as Chaos was returned to a peaceful creature once more and departed with Tikal.

In Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, Knuckles attacked Sonic for unknown reasons when he came across the hedgehog. Upon his defeat, Knuckles dropped the Chaos Emerald he was holding. After Sonic claimed the Emerald however, Dr. Eggman ambushed them and took the Emerald before leaving Knuckles and Sonic to get crushed by the collapsing cave they were in. Using his last strength owever, Knuckles got Sonic out of the cave by sending him flying out of it with an uppercut. Some time later, Knuckles got his Chaos Emerald back. Shortly after, he saw Sonic and Tails fly by in the Tornado.

In Sonic Shuffle, Knuckles, Sonic, Tails, and Amy were suddenly transported to the Temple of Light in Maginaryworld. There, they met Lumina Flowlight who had brought them here to help restore the Perfect Precioustone which had been shattered by Void and made their guardian, Illumina, disappear. With Void now posed to destroy Maginaryworld with the Precioustone gone, Knuckles agreed to help with the others. While finding the Precioustone and restoring the world affected by Void, Knuckles had a dream where he met Void. Knuckles and the others initially opposed Void but eventually saw that Void was lonely and sad which touched their hearts, and they soon saw that Void and Lumina were two halves of the same whole.

After having brought the Precioustones to the Temple of Light, Knuckles and the others returned there when Void went for the Perfect Precioustone again. There, Void's despair transformed him into a monster. Knuckles and the team defeated Void, but Lumina fell into despair as the Perfect Precioustone was not recovering. When Sonic found Void in the form of a dark gem, Knuckles helped get Lumina to accept Void by noting how negative feelings were needed for dreams to flourish. With Lumina's hope restored, Knuckles and the group saw her restoring the Precioustone, and Lumina and Void remerging back into Illumina. With Maginaryworld restored to an even better place, Knuckles and the gang received Illumina's gratitude before returning home.

In Sonic Adventure 2, Knuckles discovered the Master Emerald had been stolen by Rouge the Bat. Tracking her down, Knuckles had an ownership dispute with Rouge over the Emerald until it was stolen by Dr. Eggman, who had tracked its signal. Rather than letting Eggman have it, Knuckles shattered the Master Emerald and scattered its Emerald Shards to prevent the theft. With Rouge berating him for his action, Knuckles began hunting down the shards before Rouge could get them. After gathering some shards on the way, Knuckles got lost inside the Aquatic Mine and ended up in Central City, where he met Tails and Amy, only for Amy to drag him into Sonic's latest adventure, where they were trying to stop Eggman from using the Eclipse Cannon to take over the Earth.

Having located Eggman on Space Colony ARK, Knuckles led the group to Eggman's base, having seen both Eggman and Rouge enter it. Believing there was a space shuttle there that could take them to the ARK and destroy the Eclipse Cannon, Knuckles, and the team infiltrated the base, where Knuckles found the keys to the center at Sonic's choice, before having a fight with King Boom Boo. At the shuttle's launch pad, Knuckles and the others were ambushed by Eggman with the Egg Golem. While Sonic defeated the Egg Golem, Knuckles and the others got a space shuttle to take off in. While en route to Space Colony ARK, however, the shuttle hit a stray asteroid, causing the cargo bay to open and releasing all the Emerald Shards Knuckles had stored there. Panicking, Knuckles tried taking control of the shuttle, only to cause it to crash into the ARK. After landing, Knuckles left the group to find the lost shards.

After finding some shards, Knuckles met Rouge again and fought her to a stalemate. However, as Rouge lunged towards the Master Emerald, she tripped and began falling towards a lava pit, but Knuckles saved her life, only for Rouge to show ingratitude to him. Regardless, she returned the Emerald Shards she had found as thanks. After restoring the Master Emerald, Knuckles left with it, but not before swallowing his pride and apologizing to Rouge for hurting her. No sooner, Knuckles found Sonic appearing in front of him after he had escaped from a doomed capsule using Chaos Control with a fake Chaos Emerald, who told Knuckles to go help Tails and Amy as he left to destroy the Eclipse Cannon.

After the Eclipse Cannon had been stopped, Knuckles and Sonic met Rouge, who told them that the ARK was on a collision course with Earth (although Knuckles thought by her appearance that she was still after the Master Emerald). Knuckles and the others then saw a recording of Gerald Robotnik announcing to the world that the ARK's impact would destroy the planet as his vengence against humanity for the death of his granddaughter, Maria. Banding with Eggman, Knuckles and the group came up with the plan to use the Master Emerald to deactivate the seven Chaos Emeralds, which were powering the cannon's core, to stop the Space Colony's crash course. When Knuckles and Sonic made it to the core, they were attacked by the Biolizard, but Shadow arrived to distract it. Knuckles used the Master Emerald to stop the Chaos Emeralds, but the Biolizard warped outside and fused with the ARK, becoming the Finalhazard, to keep the ARK on its collision course. Knuckles then watched Sonic and Shadow use the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and Super Shadow before leaving to defeat the Finalhazard. He and the others advised the two through transmission lines.

After Super Sonic and Super Shadow beat the Finalhazard and brought the ARK warped into orbit, Knuckles saw Sonic return alone, informing them that Shadow had seemingly died. Knuckles then asked Rouge what she planned to do and was content to hear she considered giving up treasure hunting before they returned to Earth.

In Sonic Advance, Knuckles joined forces with Sonic, Tails, and Amy to stop Dr. Eggman from obtaining the seven Chaos Emeralds. Over the course of their adventure, Knuckles and the others got the Chaos Emeralds first and chased the doctor to the X-Zone. After they defeated the EGG X, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy returned to Earth while Super Sonic faced Eggman in a final confrontation on the moon. There, they awaited Sonic's return but grew confused when he did not show up. A few days later, though, Sonic finally returned.

In Sky Canyon, Knuckles intercepted Sonic and his allies in the Egg Saucer but was defeated. Realizing that he had been tricked, Knuckles tried to defend himself but was chided by Sonic. When Sonic then tried to leave, Knuckles joined him, wanting payback at Eggman.

After hunting down and seemingly beating Eggman, Knuckles, Sonic, Tails, Cream, and Cheese found Vanilla who had gone missing, only to see her being kidnapped by Eggman in his new mech. Knuckles then witnessed Sonic using the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and taking off to rescue Vanilla and stop Eggman. When Sonic returned with Vanilla, Knuckles congratulated Sonic for a job well done.

Traveling across the different regions, Knuckles and his friends eventually got the seven Chaos Emeralds and had Amy and Cream join them. Along the way, Knuckles also faced Dr. Eggman's newest creation, G-merl, a rebuilt version of Emerl. Eventually, Knuckles and his friends got to the Emerald Altar where they beat the Hyper EggRobo and used the Master Emerald to return the world to normal. Later, following Sonic's return from his and Eggman's battle with Ultimate G-merl, Knuckles remained behind at the Master Emerald's shrine and watched on satisfied as his friends took their leave.

In Sonic Pinball Party, right after Sonic had foiled another of Dr. Eggman's attempts at world domination, Knuckles enrolled himself in Casinopolis's Egg Cup Tournament. His first opponent, however, was none other than Sonic, who had joined the tournament to foil Eggman's latest scheme. Refusing to lose to Sonic, Knuckles competed against him, but was soundly defeated. Although sour about his loss, Knuckles advised Sonic to keep his guard up. Later, after Sonic defeated Eggman, Knuckles saw Sonic liberate Eggman's prisoners in Casinopolis.

In Sonic Battle, Knuckles heard the news that an E-121 Phi had been robbing jewelry stores. Later, Knuckles met up with Sonic, Tails and Emerl, a Gizoid Sonic had found, who had come to ask for the Chaos Emerald in his possession to develop Emerl. Knuckles, however, mistook Emerl for the E-121 Phi and attacked him but was defeated. Knuckles then relinquished his Chaos Emerald and learned about Emerl's abilities and that Dr. Eggman and Rouge were after him, making him suspicious.

Later, Knuckles met Tails and Emerl, where he, after a brief fight with Emerl, was then told by Tails to come to Emerald Beach when their path was blocked by Chaos Gamma. In the end, Knuckles took care of Gamma alone, allowing Tails and Emerl to leave. When Chaos Gamma escaped, Knuckles got to Emerald Beach, where he saw Rouge leave and heard what had happened from Sonic. When Knuckles tried to ask Emerl, he became infuriated as Emerl continued to ignore him, especially upon Sonic's orders, which made Knuckles fight both of them.

Later, after Emerl had been stolen by Rouge, Knuckles and Tails aided Sonic when he fought Rouge to get Emerl back, with Rouge eventually surrendering Emerl. Later on, when Knuckles learned about how Emerl needed Chaos Emeralds and that he grew stronger the more he fought, he vowed to help realize Emerl's full potential. Finding Emerl with Tails in Emerald Town, Knuckles trained with him until they heard the news saying that an E-121 Phi was in Night Babylon and Knuckles took Emerl with him to deal with it.

In Central City, Knuckles briefly came across Amy, only to be attacked by Chaos Gamma. After forcing Chaos Gamma to leave, Knuckles encountered Rouge, who filled him in on Chaos Gamma and learned the robot wanted revenge at Emerl. After processing this, Knuckles and Emerl continued to Night Babylon. There, they met a clerk who mistook Emerl for a Phi and called a Guard Robo. After destroying it and escaping, Knuckles lost his temper and yelled at Emerl and upset him. Apologizing for his outburst, Knuckles had Emerl wait while he went into a casino. When Knuckles returned, however, Emerl was gone, and he began looking for him. After several skirmishes with store clerks, Knuckles found Emerl with Rouge. Knuckles thought Rouge was after Emerl, but he found her innocent. Just then, they found the Phis. Knuckles and Emerl proceeded to destroy them and got their Emerald Shards before being given an Emerald Shard from Rouge as well who suggested they ask Tails about the Emerald Shards.

Heeding Rouge's advice, Knuckles returned to Tails who explained they could get a whole Chaos Emerald if the collected two more shards from the Phis. Knuckles then left with Emerl to train him and fought him to settle their score. After their battle, Dr. Eggman appeared and attacked them with a Phi, but Knuckles and Emerl defeated it, claimed its Emerald Shard and chased Eggman.

Finding Eggman in Central City, Knuckles and Emerl destroyed another Phi and took its Emerald Shard. There, Knuckles acknowledged Emerl as his battle partner, before hearing Eggman say that he was heading to Gimme Shelter as he escaped.

As Knuckles entered Gimme Shelter, he was caught in Eggman's "spiky rodent trap," and Eggman revealed that he had tricked him into coming. As Eggman announced the plan to have Emerl absorb his Final Egg Blaster, Knuckles was left in Chaos Gamma's hands, but Emerl defeated it. Afterward, Knuckles asked Emerl to free him, but Emerl began mocking him for his lack of strength, infuriating him enough to try breaking free himself until Emerl shut the trap down, causing Knuckles to hurl himself due to his struggling. Heading back to Emerald Town, Knuckles had Tails use their Emerald Shards to make a whole Chaos Emerald, which they gave to Emerl. As Tails wondered what happened during the pair's adventure, Knuckles asked Emerl to keep it a secret that he got tricked by Eggman. Regardless, Emerl still told Sonic, who had just arrived, and Tails, making Knuckles explode with anger.

Later on, Knuckles met Emerl again, who had come to fight him under direction from Shadow so that Emerl could fight the latter. Later, when Eggman revealed his newest Death Egg and its Final Egg Blaster, Knuckles met up with Sonic, Tails and Emerl at Holy Summit, where he revealed that Chaos had returned, a sign of danger. As Emerl went to the Death Egg to stop Eggman, Knuckles and the others watched Emerl back on earth.

When Eggman was defeated, however, Eggman fired the Final Egg Blaster, destroying some stars. The sudden release of enormous amounts of energy caused Emerl to revert to his original destructive programming. However, Eggman could not control Emerl as excpected, and Emerl prepared to fire the Final Egg Blaster at earth. Knuckles then urged Sonic on as he went to the Death Egg to stop Emerl with the Master Emerald. When that failed, Sonic had no choice but to destroy Emerl. Once the deed was done, the world was saved, though everyone mourned Emerl's death.

In Sonic Heroes, Knuckles and Tails received a letter from Dr. Eggman, who claimed to have created "the ultimate weapon" to conquer the world and challenged them to stop him within three days. Using the Tornado 2, Knuckles and Tails found Sonic and brought him the news. As Knuckles was confident they could handle it, he and Tails joined Sonic in stopping Eggman's scheme, officially forming Team Sonic.

Beginning their mission by tracking Dr. Eggman, Team Sonic found the doctor at Ocean Palace, where they were attacked by the Egg Hawk. Though the team defeated the machine, Eggman escaped. Knuckles and Team Sonic then followed Eggman to Grand Metropolis, where the team freed the city from Eggman's control and escaped from the Power Plant, before running into Team Rose, who they managed to give the slip.

Arriving in Casino Park, Knuckles was taken back by the place but was pushed on. As they got through the city, Eggman attacked them with his Robot Carnival, but Team Sonic defeated the horde. Following Eggman to Rail Canyon and only having until sunset, Knuckles and his team headed for Bullet Station and destroyed Eggman's base there. Team Sonic found Eggman in the Egg Albatross and destroy it. It was then, however, that Knuckles and the team discovered that the Eggman they had been chasing was a copy and that their challenge was to distract them while Eggman launched his Egg Fleet. As Sonic took off, Knuckles quickly followed him.

Knuckles threatening Rouge and the rest of Team Dark after her comment.

Following Eggman through the jungle, Team Sonic met Team Dark and saw Shadow was still alive. As an argument arose about who would take down Eggman, the two teams fought each other. After the battle, Team Sonic followed Eggman and Shadow to Hang Castle, where Knuckles teased Tails by saying that it could have been Shadow's ghost they saw. After infiltrating the castle and escaping Mystic Mansion, Team Sonic was attacked by Eggman's Robot Storm but defeated it.

After that, Team Sonic got to the Egg Fleet and went straight for the Final Fortress where they destroyed the colossal flagship's core. Team Sonic then found Eggman in his Egg Emperor and defeated him. After destroying much of the Egg Fleet, Knuckles teased Sonic with how he would have stood no chance without their help, but was surprised when Sonic agreed and thanked him and Tails. Knuckles and Tails then watched Sonic run away as Amy arrived.

Later, Team Sonic and the other teams saw the return of Metal Sonic, who had been staging the team's adventures and impersonating Eggman so he could follow them and copy their data in a plan to conquer the world himself, as he transformed into Metal Madness. Seeing that the teams had collected all the Chaos Emeralds, the real Dr. Eggman came up with the plan of using them against Metal Sonic. When Sonic decided to face Metal Sonic alone, Knuckles insisted on going with him along with Tails. While Team Sonic charged the Chaos Emeralds, Team Rose, Dark, and Chaotix fought Metal Madness to buy them some time.

When Metal Madness transformed into Metal Overlord, Knuckles and Tails were given their own Super States by Sonic as he transformed into Super Sonic. The team then took off and defeated Metal Overlord. Back on the flagship, Knuckles watched Sonic leave, before chasing after Rouge once she said she would steal "someone else's treasure." Soon after, Knuckles joined Sonic and Tails as they headed off to find their next adventure.

In Sonic Jump, Knuckles encountered Dr. Eggman on Angel Island. The doctor demanded that Knuckles handed over the Chaos Emerald he had, but he refused. Unfortunately, when Knuckles turned around to see Sonic and Tails' arrival, Eggman snatched the Emerald. Now possessing all the Chaos Emeralds, Eggman gloated to the heroes that he planned to harness the Emeralds' power to create the "Brainwash Beam", which would let him take over the world, before taking off. As Knuckles then began arguing with Sonic over whose fault this was, Tails stopped them. Tails then suggested that Eggman needed to head into space in order for the Brainwash Beam to cover the whole world. As such, Knuckles and his friends headed for South America, which was supposedly where Eggman had a space station to launch a rocket from. When they arrived however, Eggman had already prepared the rocket launch and was heading into space. Not willing to give up, Sonic asked for a way to catch up to Eggman and Tails replied that it was possible using the space station's controls. Contend with letting Sonic go after Eggman, Knuckles remained on Earth to guard the space station while Sonic went into space.

After Sonic destroyed the space satellite containing the Brainwash Beam, Knuckles and Tails found Sonic after he crash-landed on Earth. As Knuckles praised Sonic's luck and headstrongness, he asked him about the Chaos Emeralds, only to learn, much to his dismay, that they got scattered across the globe after the space station blew up. After the heroes re-gathered the Emeralds however, Sonic noticed that one was missing, which he suspected was in Eggman's possession. With Knuckles believing that Eggman was hiding out in space, Sonic went there and got the Emerald back after defeating Eggman. After Sonic returned though, Knuckles had a feeling that they had not seen the last of Eggman.

In Sonic Jump (2012), Knuckles and co. discovered that Eggman had begun kidnapping Animals again and taking them high into the sky, prompting the heroes to set out to stop Dr. Eggman's operations. Whenever they managed to corner Eggman in a Zone and defeat him however, the doctor would retreat to another Zone, although not before capturing more Animals. After Eggman's defeat in Mechanical Zone however, the doctor would crash down to Earth, ending his plans, thus allowing Knuckles to reunite with all the Animals.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Knuckles left his post on Angel Island and joined forces with most of his friends and G.U.N.'s forces to repel the Black Arms invasion of Earth. He appears during Shadow's Hero Missions where he asks Shadow for assistance against the Black Arms.

Arriving in Glyphic Canyon, Knuckles attempted to assist G.U.N. by driving off the Black Arms infesting the area. There, he met Shadow, who had just been teleported to the ruins. Upon meeting him, Knuckles filled Shadow in on the Black Arms around them and requested his assistance in clearing the area of the Black Arms.

In the Hero scenario, where Shadow accepted Knuckles' request, Knuckles and Shadow managed to drive the Black Arms out of the area, and as well find one of the Chaos Emeralds amongst the ruins.

In Central City, Knuckles discovered that the Black Arms had set up bombs across the city that would destroy the entire city, a tragedy that Knuckles did not intend to come true. When there were only a few minutes left until the bombs would explode, Knuckles noticed Shadow had arrived in Central City and asked for help defusing the bombs.

In the Hero scenario, where Shadow accepted Knuckles' request, Knuckles and Shadow succeeded in defusing enough bombs and managed to save the city, buying time for the President to be evacuated by the Commander and GUN.

Having gotten onboard the Black Comet, Knuckles assisted G.U.N. in attacking the Black Arms' base, with Knuckles planning to destroy the comet's core. On his way to the core, Knuckles came across Shadow and asked him for his help to get to the center.

In the Hero scenario, where Shadow accepted Knuckles' request, Knuckles and Shadow made it to the center of the Black Comet, where they found the Chaos Emerald that the Black Arms had stolen. Though Shadow refused to follow Knuckles any further, Knuckles still came to Shadow's aid when the hedgehog was attacked by Dr. Eggman and his Egg Dealer. Eventually, the two destroyed Eggman's contraption and, as well, claimed the final Chaos Emerald before Shadow personally ended Eggman's life.

In the last story, Knuckles arrived with Sonic, Tails, Amy, Rouge and Dr. Eggman to stop Shadow from giving the Chaos Emeralds to Black Doom. Black Doom, however, took the Emeralds and used an enhanced Chaos Control to transport the Black Comet to the surface, planning to use humans as energy sources for his kind. As Knuckles prepared to act, he and the others were paralyzed by a special nerve gas, and Black Doom unleashed the Death leeches to prey on them. Shadow, however, proved to be immune to the gas, and he left Knuckles and the others behind as he pursued Black Doom.

Knuckles and the others eventually escaped the Black Comet and found some shelter from where they cheered Super Shadow on as he fought and defeated Devil Doom. Knuckles then witnessed Super Shadow sending the Black Comet back into space and blowing it up with the Eclipse Cannon. As Eggman then tried to sneak away to claim the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles furiously chased after him.

In Sonic Rush, Knuckles was walking around on his own when he met Cream and her new friend Blaze the Cat. As he was introduced, Knuckles got angry when Cream mentioned his shortcomings but then noticed that Blaze held a Sol Emerald. Sensing that its power was similar to chaos energy and thus a Chaos Emerald, Knuckles advised Blaze that she gave it to Sonic for safe keeping. Blaze, however, denied his claim of having a Chaos Emerald and tried to leave, but Knuckles thought she was lying and tried to chase after her. During the chase, however, he was buried under a pile of rocks by Blaze.

Eventually, Knuckles pulled himself out of the rocks and met Sonic and Tails. Knuckles then told them how Blaze got him stuck there and took off to punch some things to vent his anger, inadvertently opening a path blocked by rocks. Following that, Knuckles searched for Blaze to get some payback and eventually found her with Cream and Amy but was held back by Amy while Cream and Blaze escaped.

In the aftermath of Sonic and Blaze's final battles with Dr. Eggman and Dr. Eggman Nega, Knuckles joined up with the others in celebration, where he warned Sonic that Amy was coming.

A while afterward, Knuckles, along with Sonic, Tails, Amy and Cream, came to Blaze's aid when Eggman and Eggman Nega drained the Sol Emeralds of their power to conquer both Sonic's dimension and Blaze's world. With Knuckles and the others supporting her, Blaze recharged the Sol Emeralds, becoming Burning Blaze, and joined up with Super Sonic, and together, they defeated the doctors and saved their worlds.

In Sonic Riders, Team Sonic arrived in Future City as they searched for a Chaos Emerald until the Babylon Rogues appeared. When Tails read that they had the Emerald, Knuckles aided Sonic in intercepting the Rogues and knocked Storm off his Type-S though Storm still escaped. Knuckles and Tails then followed Sonic when he chased after Jet and found him knocked down while the Babylon Rogues escaped.

The next day, the team saw Dr. Eggman on the local monitors, announcing the EX World Grand Prix and that the entry fee for the contestants was a Chaos Emerald, with the winner getting to claim all seven. Seeing that the participants Dr. Eggman had found were the Babylon Rogues, Knuckles and the team decided to enter the competition.

After the qualifications rounds, Knuckles was with his team when they met Amy, who had also signed up for the tournament. After then hearing Tails explain the legends about the Babylon Rogues and Babylon Garden, Knuckles wondered how Extreme Gears worked but found Tails' explanation too confusing. Just then, Wave came by and mocked Tails' Blue Star (and places a bomb on it), much to Knuckles' annoyance. Shortly after though, Knuckles and the others hurried out to next race.

After the race, Knuckles was walking through Egg Factory when he bumped into Storm. Recognizing him, Knuckles wanted to settle the score between them. When Knuckles and Storm heard that the next race was about to start, however, they decided to settle their dispute with a race, which Knuckles won.

Before the semifinals, Knuckles and Tails watched Sonic practice his Extreme Gear techniques until Jet appeared and mocked Sonic before taking his leave. Knuckles and his team eventually got to the finals, which Jet won after Wave sabotaged Sonic's Blue Star. They then witnessed Jet claim and use the seven Chaos Emeralds in tandem with the Key to Babylon Garden to reveal Babylon Garden itself, with the intention of claiming its treasure. Eggman, however, stole the key so that he could take the treasure for himself, believing it to be technology that he could use to conquer the world, and Knuckles and Tails followed Sonic as they headed out to stop Eggman.

Using the Tornado 2, Knuckles and Tails got to Babylon Garden, while Sonic took off on the midway to chase Eggman. There, they met Wave and Storm, and Knuckles and Storm got ready to fight but had to stop when a flock of E-10000s attacked. Chasing after Wave and Storm, Knuckles and Tails got to Sonic's location as Sonic stopped Eggman and returned the Key to Babylon Garden to the Rogues. Knuckles and the others were then about to leave when Amy arrived and chased furiously after Sonic for attacking Eggman while he held her hostage. They heard a heard a roar and decided to check it out. Arriving inside the Babylon Garden, Knuckles and the group saw the Babylon Rogues had awoken the Babylon Guardian and were forced to fight it.

After beating the Babylon Guardian, the group found the Treasure of Babylon, which was revealed to be a Magic Carpet, much to the disappointment of Eggman. With the whole ordeal over, Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues went their separate ways, until they met again.

In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, a few months after the EX World Grand Prix, Knuckles was driving with Sonic and Tails through Monopole with a mysterious meteorite Tails had found the other night.[26] On their way to Megalo Station, however, Knuckles and the others were attacked by SCR-HD and a group of SCR-GP, a part of a currently global robot rampage who were after the meteorite. In the insuring chase, the group crashed and fell out a 300-story building, though Knuckles and Tails saved themselves by flying while Sonic was saved by the meteorite which could manipulate gravity.

After that, Knuckles and the group tried to hide from the robots, where they met Amy, who was being chased by the robots because she had a meteorite similar to theirs. The group then decided to go to MeteorTech, who created the robots, for answers. There, Knuckles and the gang were discovered by security, but the Babylon Rogues arrived, and Jet repelled the security robots with another meteorite. As the Babylon Rogues demanded their meteorites, called the Arks of the Cosmos, Knuckles was ready to fight but had to wait when more robots showed up.

Arriving in the control room, the group were surprised to find Dr. Eggman, who owned of MeteoTech, though Eggman claimed to have no part in the global robot rampage. However, when Eggman recognized Sonic's Ark of the Cosmos, Knuckles threatened the doctor to tell them what he knew. Eggman then revealed that MeteoTech’s computer was powered by one of the Arks of the Cosmos and that the robot leader, SCR-HD, which also had an Ark of the Cosmos, sought them out for reasons unknown. The group then noticed Amy was gone and saw her being chased by SCR-HD and Storm on a computer screen, and Team Sonic left to save her.

When they found Amy, Knuckles and the others learned that SCR-HD had suddenly blown up and Storm had taken its Ark of the Cosmos. However, Tails deduced that they had to remove the Ark of the Cosmos in MeteoTech’s mother computer to stop the rampaging robots. As they tried to figure where the mother computer could be, Amy remembered a place Storm mentioned with info on the Arks of the Cosmos, which Knuckles recognized it as Gigan Rocks and personally lead the group there.

Arriving at Gigan Rocks, Knuckles translated the ancient scripts there, and they learned that the Arks of the Cosmos were ancient power units for Babylon Garden. After then seeing the Babylon Rogues chase after Eggman above them, Knuckles translated some more inscriptions, which helped the group figure out the location of the MeteoTech’s computer mother. When they arrived there, Knuckles and the others found the Crimson Tower and the Babylon Rogues, who revealed that Eggman had stolen their Arks of the Cosmos. Understanding that Eggman planned to use the Arks of the Cosmos to control all the world's robots and conquer the world, Knuckles and the others raced against the Babylon Rogues to Eggman.

At the end of the race, Eggman was stopped, and the robot rampage came to an end. After Babylon Garden had appeared due to all Arks of the Cosmos being present and handing over their Arks of the Cosmos, Knuckles, Sonic and Tails were about to leave when SCR-HD appeared and took all five Arks of the Cosmos to Babylon Garden. This transformed Babylon Garden into Astral Babylon, forming a black hole that threatened to consume the planet. Knuckles, Tails and the Babylon Rogues then followed Sonic to Astral Babylon to disconnect the engine where they faced Master Core: ABIS and defeated it, saving the world.

Later, Knuckles, Sonic, Amy, and Tails returned to Monopole, where Tails told Knuckles and the rest of how the Arks of the Cosmos made the robots to go amok. Knuckles and then others then saw Jet flying by, who challenged Sonic to a new race, which Sonic accepted.

In Sonic Free Riders, Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails signed up to compete in the second World Grand Prix hosted by Dr. Eggman for the sake of the competition rather than the prizes. As Omochao interviewed them before the competition, Knuckles was itchy to begin.

During the first round, Team Heroes faced Team Rose, who Knuckles hardly considered threatening. Additional, he was annoyed by Amy berating of Sonic for not going easy. Though Team Heroes eventually beat Team Rose, Knuckles insisted they should not let their victory go to their heads.

For their next race, Team Heroes faced Team Dark. When Knuckles went up against E-10000B, however, he heard the robot making clicking sounds and moving around funny. After the race, Knuckles blamed E-10000B for foul play, but no proofs of his claims could be found. Regardless, Team Heroes still beat Team Dark.

Having advanced to the finals, Team Heroes met went up against Team Babylon, with Knuckles aggressively ready to face them for the championship. Over the course of the team face-off, Knuckles supposed both his team and mocked Team Babylon as their victory slipped away. After defeating Team Babylon, even when the opposing team was given a second chance due to mechanical trouble, Knuckles was asked for comments and said that that he had a good time since he managed to shut Jet up.

As the tournament progressed, Team Heroes had their fair share of losses, while Knuckles remaining dedicated to the competition and his team. At the end of the tournament, Knuckles and the other teams went to the awards ceremony to collect their prizes, but Eggman made all of the competitors race his "ultimate Gear-jockey robot." After the race, Eggman revealed that he used the World Grand Prix to get the riders' racing data with his E-10000 robots to create the ultimate Extreme Gear which he could use for his own agenda, which Knuckles knew confirmed his suspicion about E-10000E. Eggman then challenged Knuckles and the others to a race but lost. As Knuckles mocked Eggman for his defeat, Metal Sonic revealed himself as the one controlling E-10000B and passing fake data to Eggman, while taking the real data himself in an effort to beat Sonic in Extreme Gear riding.

Knuckles and the others following watched as Metal Sonic challenged Sonic to a race, in which Sonic defeated his robot copy. Afterward, as the World Grand Prix came to a close and everyone began to leave, Knuckles blamed Eggman for all the trouble they had to face during the tournament.

Despite being certain it was a trap, Knuckles, Sonic and Tails went to White Acropolis. When Sonic handed over the Chaos Emerald, however, Eggman sent them to an apocalyptic future with a time machine. There, they met Shadow and Rouge. The group then decided to work together to get home by finding enough Chaos Emeralds for a Chaos Control powerful enough for time travel.

While searching for the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails briefly saw Silver and Blaze talking with Mephiles before they went back in time. The group then learned from their database that Elise would die in the Egg Carrier's future crash-landing. Locating a Chaos Emerald in Flame Core, Sonic his friends met up with Rouge and Shadow and went to the central volcano, where Rouge found the Emerald only for Iblis to attack them. After defeating Iblis, Sonic and Shadow use their two Chaos Emeralds to create a time-space rift, which Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails used to return to the present. After that, Knuckles helped find information on Elise's whereabouts. Later on, Knuckles helped Sonic through Aquatic Base to save Elise from her imminent death onboard the Egg Carrier.

Later on, Knuckles passed through Castle Town with Tails and Amy when they were suddenly caught in a spatial distortion created by Solaris and send to End of the World, where they met Shadow, Silver, Rouge, E-123 Omega and Eggman. There, they also found Elise and Sonic, and Knuckles saw to his shock that Sonic was dead, having been killed as a part of Mephiles' plan to remake Solaris. As Solaris prepared to consume time itself, Knuckles opted to destroy him, but it was deemed impossible due to Solaris' temporal omnipresence and Sonic's passing. When Elise sensed that Sonic's soul was still among them, however, Knuckles and the others collected the seven Chaos Emeralds to revive Sonic. After Elise revive Sonic as Super Sonic, Knuckles stood behind and supported Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver as they defeated Solaris before they all were engulfed in light. When Sonic and Elise then ensured Solaris never came to exist; time was reverted, resulting in the events and memories of the adventure being erased and Knuckles to be returned to where he was prior to the events.

In Sonic Rivals, Knuckles was guarding the Master Emerald when it suddenly disappeared. His search for the Master Emerald eventually took him to Onyx Island where he saw who he believed was Dr. Eggman, but was really Dr. Eggman Nega disguised as Dr. Eggman (Knuckles, however, does not realize this throughout the game) with Sonic, and he suspected the doctor was behind the theft. Confronting Eggman Nega, the doctor showed he had turned the Master Emerald into a card with his special camera. Meanwhile, Sonic asked Eggman Nega where Tails and Amy were, and Eggman Nega showed that he had turned them into cards too. As Eggman Nega escaped, Knuckles raced Sonic to the doctor.

After they had found Eggman Nega, the doctor attacked in the Egg Turtle which they defeated. After the doctor had escaped, Knuckles met Shadow, who also looked for Eggman Nega. However, when Shadow criticized him for letting the doctor escape, Knuckles raced Shadow to find Eggman Nega first. When they reached Eggman Nega, Knuckles demanded the Master Emerald back, but the doctor attacked them in the Egg Falcon, which they defeated.

After the battle, Knuckles was teleport to another area by Eggman Nega with the Master Emerald. There, he met Silver, who had come to bring Eggman Nega back to the future. After answering Silver's questions, Knuckles started asking him, but Silver did not answer, provoking Knuckles to chased after him. Eventually, Knuckles found Eggman Nega and asked how he stole the Master Emerald only to be told that Onyx Island was Angel Island before he was attacked by Metal Sonic. After beating Metal Sonic, Knuckles pondered about how Onyx Island could be Angel Island when he met Shadow. As Shadow berated him for letting the doctor get away again, Knuckles raced Shadow to Eggman Nega.

When Knuckles found Eggman Nega, the doctor explained that Onyx Island was Angel Island from the future, before he attacked with the Egg Lynx. After defeating the machine, Knuckles tried to make sense of what Eggman Nega said when he met Sonic and Tails. Not wanting Sonic to outdo him as he seemed to know where the doctor was, Knuckles raced Sonic to Eggman Nega.

When they found Eggman Nega, Knuckles demanded a full explanation. Eggman Nega then revealed that the Master Emerald disappeared because he turned it into a card in the future, which due to the Master Emerald's properties made it disappear in all time frames, and that he then used it to transport the Angel Island in the future to the present as Onyx Island. Deeming Eggman Nega responsible for all this, Knuckles defeated both the Egg Kong and Metal Sonic. Frustrated at his constant defeats, Eggman Nega told Knuckles that he now planned to turn the world into a card and escaped. Sonic and Tails then showed up in the Tornado when they were heading to Eggman Nega’s base, and Knuckles teamed up with them to stop Eggman Nega. On their way through Eggman Nega’s base, Knuckles and Sonic met Shadow and Silver, and they all put aside their differences to stop Eggman Nega.

At the center of the base, Knuckles and the others found a large spaceship with Eggman Nega’s special camera equipped on that he planned to use to turn the world into a card. Knuckles then noticed that Eggman Nega planned to fuel the device with the Master Emerald's card and some othercards, but the four rivals destroyed the spaceship as it took off, thus foiling Eggman Nega’s plan. With the Master Emerald back, Knuckles planned to use it to send Onyx Island back to the future where it belonged, and as well to look for the other treasures Eggman Nega had trapped in cards.

In Sonic Rivals 2, Knuckles looked for the Master Emerald when it went missing again. Arriving on an island, Knuckles suspected that Dr. Eggman was behind the theft. Knuckles then met Rouge, who offered to take him to Eggman if he helped her find the Chaos Emeralds, which he agreed to. Knuckles then saw Sonic and Tails, who were also looking for Eggman and asked Sonic if he had seen Eggman. Sonic, however, insisted on getting to Eggman first, so Knuckles competed with Sonic to find Eggman.

Knuckles and the others eventually found Dr. Eggman, who was really Eggman Nega masquerading as Dr. Eggman (Knuckles does not realize this throughout the game). Knuckles demanded the Master Emerald back, but the doctor played innocent and attacked in his Egg Liner. Knuckles and Rouge then followed Eggman Nega to Sunset Forest Zone, where Rouge thought the doctor had to have an Emerald Detector to locate the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, and they decided to find this device. On his own, Knuckles met Shadow who insisted on keep them from the Emeralds once he told him the story, forcing him to fight him.

Knuckles and Rouge eventually found Eggman Nega with Shadow and Metal Sonic. As Knuckles demanded Eggman's Emerald Detector, the doctor attacked in the Egg Dealer. After defeating it, Knuckles and Rouge got the Emerald Detector, which picked up a signal. As Knuckles searched the area in Neon Palace Zone, he met Silver, who wanted some Chao. After looking for Rings for the Emerald Detector, Knuckles asked Silver of why he sought Chao but thought he was crazy when he heard it was to save the world, and they ended up fighting. Later on, Knuckles and Rouge found Eggman Nega with Silver and Espio, and the doctor attacked in the Egg Dealer, but the group defeated it.

Arriving in Frontier Canyon Zone, Knuckles and Rouge lost track of Eggman Nega. The Emerald Detector soon found more Emeralds, but Knuckles was frustrated that none of them were the Master Emerald. Knuckles then saw Shadow and Metal Sonic nearby and followed them, with Knuckles chasing Metal Sonic after him after hearing Eggman's voice come from the robot. Shortly after, Knuckles met Rouge, who explained that Eggman Nega sought to bring forth the Ifrit to destroy the world. Just then, Eggman Nega attacked them in the Egg Bull, but Knuckles and Rouge defeated it despite inference from Shadow and Metal Sonic.

At Mystic Haunt Zone, Knuckles was convinced by Rouge that Eggman was here. While looking, Knuckles met Espio and asked him if he had seen Eggman or Shadow, hoping they had the Master Emerald but was dismissed. Soon after, he met and fought Metal Sonic so he could bring him to Eggman Nega. True enough, Knuckles found Eggman Nega and Shadow and demanded the Master Emerald. However, Eggman instead revealed that he used Rouge to collect the Chaos Emeralds to opening the portal to the Ifrit's world. As Silver then arrived, Knuckles had enough and fought the Egg Phantom.

After the battle, Knuckles saw that the portal to the Ifrit's dimension was opening, despite Rouge only having six Chaos Emeralds (with the seventh unknown to them being inside Metal Sonic). Intending to stop the Ifrit, Knuckles dragged Rouge with him into the Ifrit's dimension. After entering, Knuckles lost track of Rouge and began to look for her, and soon after found the Ifrit, who had taken control of Rouge. With no choice, Knuckles fought both Rouge and the Ifrit. Despite Knuckles occasionally falling prey to the creature's mind control, the two defeated the Ifrit, thus preventing it from leaving its world and got back to their home dimension before the portal closed.

After checking up on Rouge, Knuckles was annoyed the Master Emerald was still lost but then discovered that it had been inside the Emerald Detector all along. As Knuckles was praise by Rouge for his heroism, he saw Rouge leave with the Master Emerald, and he chased after her.

Some time later, Knuckles learned that six of the Chaos Emeralds had been stolen by a group dubbed the Marauders. Intending to stop them, Knuckles came to Tails and had him set up a trap for the Marauders by using the last Chaos Emerald. When the Marauders appeared, however, they jammed the trap and turned on Knuckles who was overwhelmed by numbers and defeated by their leader, Shade, for then to be taken with them as they escaped with the Chaos Emerald.

Knuckles telling that it is his job to protect the Master Emerald.

Locked up in their hideout, Knuckles attempted to break out, when he met Sonic, Tails and their friends, who had come to rescue him. When Knuckles decided to head back to Angel Island to protect the Master Emerald from the Marauders, they discovered that the island was gone. Suspecting that Eggman was working with the Marauders, the group began looking for the doctor using Tails' Eggman Detector. With a Pattern Generator made from Eggman Devices they found, the team located Eggman. However, the doctor claimed that he was against the Marauders as well and that he had also been reformed, willing to help Knuckles and the others fight the Marauders by leading them into Metropolis where the Marauders had drawn Angel Island to with the Chaos Emeralds, which they accepted.

On their way there, Knuckles and the others met Shade and her lackeys, and Knuckles discovered that Shade and the Marauders were a group of Echidnas called the Nocturnus Clan, exiled to the Twilight Cage in ancient times. After defeating them, Shade blocked their way to Metropolis, but Knuckles and the others found a way around it. Meanwhile, Knuckles was torn to finally meet others of his kind but was forced to fight them. Regardless, Knuckles was joined by Sonic and his party when he went to Angel Island to secure the Master Emerald, while Tails and Eggman made a weapon against the Nocturnus Clan.

By hijacking an airship and with some help from Tails' team, Sonic and his group got to Angel Island where they met the Nocturnus Clan’s leader, Imperator Ix, who sought to rule the world. Ix unleashed his soldiers on them, but Knuckles and Sonic held them off until Tails and Eggman came and deployed their weapon, which dispatched the soldiers. United, the team fought Ix until the techno wizard blew him and the others away, even Shade, but Knuckles saved Shade. Ix then stole the Master Emerald and used it to create a wormhole into Knuckles' dimension so that the Nocturnus Clan could conquer it, while Angel Island fell from the sky. The team then came up with the plan of going after Ix into the Twilight Cage and reclaim the Emeralds, and Shade joined Sonic’s team to stop Ix’s plan, having realized the evil nature of her leader.

Having constructed the Blue Cyclone, Knuckles and the group entered the Twilight Cage, while Eggman stayed behind. Inside the Twilight Cage, Knuckles and his team got five of the Chaos Emeralds back and got the alliance of the alien races residing there. When they planned to invade Nocturne to get the last Emeralds, Knuckles remained reluctant to fight Ix and instead hoped to return the echidnas to Earth peacefully so that he would not be alone anymore. With the assistance of the alien races, Knuckles and the others got to Nocturne. Once there, Knuckles got the team split into two, with him and Shade leading their group and Sonic and Tails leading the other, to find the last two Chaos Emeralds, which Charyb and Scylla possessed. Knuckles, meanwhile, planned to redeem Ix before Sonic could get to him.

Soon after, Knuckles and his team were almost defeated by Gizoid Centurions but were saved by Sonic and Tails. Knuckles and his team then found and defeated Scylla and got his Chaos Emerald, before helping Sonic's group defeat Charyb. Afterward, Knuckles and his team were teleported to Ix, who tried to persuade Knuckles to join him. Realizing Ix was unredeemable, Knuckles declined and stood by his duty while vowing to help the Nocturnus Clan his way before fighting Ix. Sonic then arrived and ensured the defeat of Ix while Knuckles reclaimed the Master Emerald. With his final defeat, Ix started to close the wormhole out of the Twilight Cage, but Knuckles and the others got through it just in time. When they returned home, however, Knuckles and the others saw that much time had passed, thus allowing Eggman to rebuild his forces, which they faced upon exit from the Twilight Cage.

Here, Knuckles met Orbot and Cubot and fought them, thinking they were behind the letter. However, he was distracted when he saw Sonic and Tails coming allowing Orbot and Cubot to get away. As Sonic and Tails began questioning him, Knuckles tried to cover up that he had been tricked and challenged Sonic to a mission. After he had lost, Knuckles moped over his defeat, but still denied he had been tricked. When Sonic won their competition with excellence, though, Knuckles took his loss more sportily.

Later, Knuckles met Rouge and suspected she was after the Master Emerald again. As Knuckles continued to argue with Rouge, Sonic and Tails arrived to try to break up their argument, but Knuckles stopped them while still denying that he had been tricked when Rouge brought it up. When Knuckles then noticed Rouge knew something about his letter, he learned from her that she wrote the letter, leaving him feeling very humiliated.

In the console/PC version of Sonic Generations, Knuckles attended and helped prepare Sonic's surprise birthday party. As the party began, however, the Time Eater suddenly appeared, and Knuckles was sucked into one of the Time Eater's Time Holes and ended up in the White Space, where he was turned into a statue due to the Time Eater's effects.

Knuckles after returning to normal.

Eventually, Knuckles was returned to normal by Sonic and Classic Sonic. When the Sonics confronted the Time Eater, which was revealed to be controlled by Eggman and Classic Eggman, Knuckles arrived at the battle with the others and cheered on both Sonics, allowing them both to transform into SuperSonic. When the Sonics defeated the Time Eater, Knuckles and the others were sent back to the present, where Knuckles admitted to Sonic that he was not half-bad, only to be knocked into a tree by Amy for thinking so little of him. Continuing the celebration where it left off, Knuckles later waved goodbye to Classic Sonic and Classic Tails when they returned to their own world.

In Sonic Lost World, Knuckles remained behind with Amy to look after some Animals while Sonic and Tails went out to free the other animals Dr. Eggman had captured. When Amy contacted Sonic, who revealed they had only got one Capsule of animals back, Knuckles boasted that he could have done better before he was pushed away.

When the Deadly Six took control of Eggman's Extractor and began draining the Life Energy out of Earth, Knuckles observed the planet's energy being taken away. Eventually, Knuckles was drained of his energy to the point where his death seemed imminent. Fortunately, he and everyone else was saved when Sonic and Tails got the Extractor to return the stolen energy. When Sonic and Tails returned, Knuckles boasted he would have finished it sooner, but accepted the outcome nonetheless.

In Sonic Runners, Knuckles and his team discovered that Dr. Eggman was back to sow up chaos again. With the aid of Sonic and Tails, Knuckles spent the next period foiling Eggman and his lackeys' numerous plots, such as kidnaping Animals, hunting Wisps on Earth, harassing Chao, building new and improved Badnik armies, and attempting to procure the Master Emerald. Along the way, Knuckles also helped several local inhabitants with their issues.

While Team Sonic managed to stop Eggman every times, it all would lead to Eggman's endgame: the construction of a new Brainwashing Laser powered by the Chaos Emeralds to enslave the world with. Although Knuckles and co. secured the Emeralds, they were too late to stop Eggman from draining them of their chaos energy. In the end, it came down to a final showdown between Team Sonic and Eggman, during which Eggman fired his Brainwashing Laser at Sonic. However, thanks to the Chaos Emeralds Sonic had, which reabsorbed their power from the laser, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic instead, and Knuckles saw him take out Eggman's laser. Reuniting with Sonic in the aftermath, Knuckles noticed Eggman had snuck away to plan his next scheme, but let that pass, knowing that they could stop whatever he could come up with, in favor of celebrating this victory with his friends.

In Sonic Runners Adventure, Knuckles tagged along on Sonic and Tails' hunt for Dr. Eggman when the scientist was stirring up trouble again. When the trio arrived in a hostile environment, Knuckles' toughness allowed him to take the lead. Discovering an Eggman facility while saving a village along the way, Tails revealed after doing some recon that the facility was an Extractor. Knuckles would thus shut it down while defeating Eggman when the doctor tried to stop him. When Eggman then made his escape, Knuckles and his team would follow him, eventually arriving in Sky Sanctuary. When Sonic was forced to let Eggman go by the doctor's Mind Control Ray though, Knuckles and Tails realized what Eggman's plan was all along: setting up a new mind control canon powered by the Extractor and Sky Sanctuary to take over the world with. Despite the opposition though, Team Sonic still managed to destroy Eggman's mind control cannon while Sonic forced Eggman to retreat.

In Sonic Forces, Knuckles was guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island when he got visited by Silver the Hedgehog, who Knuckles thought to be a part of a dream. He put more belief into this when he saw Angel Island become what was Pachacamac's village several years ago. The duo then met Chaos, who intimidated Silver. Knuckles tried to tell Silver that Chaos was harmless, only to get attacked by it. Knuckles and Silver fought then Chaos, until Chaos, along with the village, disappear. Silver then explained that a catastrophic event would soon happen in Knuckles' time that would affect his future. Believing himself to be important in preventing this catastrophe, Knuckles promised to help lead a team to save the world. The duo then went off to warn others on earth.[27]

Unfortunately, Dr. Eggman soon launched an attack on the City with his army, in which Sonic failed to prevent and was captured, seemingly leading to his demise. Due to this, Eggman soon took control over more than 99% of the world. Over the next six months, Knuckles assumed commandership over a ragtag resistance group made up of his friends and allies, his flair for daring plans making him suitable for leadership, to counter Eggman's forces. However, Knuckles' army made little progress despite their efforts, and victory seemed impossible.

Knuckles eventually brought in a resistance rookie who had survived an attack from Eggman's new henchman, Infinite. After introducing the Avatar, Knuckles equipped them with a Burst Wispon. He soon after sent them on a rescue mission after Rouge revealed that Sonic was alive and was held captive onboard the newly-rebuilt Death Egg. Rouge also told Knuckles and the team that Sonic was only alive to see Eggman's empire thrive, but as the evil doctor caught wind of their rescue mission, he planned to eject Sonic into space quickly. The Avatar managed to steal a shuttle from the Spaceport and made it to the Death Egg with some other soldiers. Onboard the Death Egg however, the other soldiers got occupied by enemies, so Knuckles left Sonic's rescue to the Avatar. After the Avatar found Sonic, Knuckles expressed his relief over the radio, before ordering him and the Avatar to escape the Death Egg. Upon reuniting with the duo, Knuckles, out of necessity, sent them on a mission to shut down the Arsenal Pyramid, a weapon factory supplying Eggman's army, which he followed over the radio.

Knuckles soon after discovered that the Resistance troops in Mystic Jungle was being bombarded by the Eggman Fleet. Luckily, Sonic went there to salvage the soldiers' efforts. More trouble soon arose, however, when the Eggman Army broke through the City's defenses. Finding himself short on soldiers, Knuckles sent the Avatar to rescue the unfortunate civilians. Joining the fight, Knuckles soon learned, much to his relief, that the enemies were withdrawing, all because of the Avatar's efforts. Knuckles soon after followed the Avatar's investigation of some lifeform readings in Mystic Jungle, which led to the discovery of Tails and Classic Sonic, the latter of whom had been brought to Knuckles' dimension by Eggman's new power. Bringing the two into the Restance, Knuckles learned from Tails that Eggman had a plan that would wipe the Resistance out in three days. However, Knuckles had to put their meeting on hold when Shadow, who had seemingly defected to the Eggman Empire, attacked the Resistance's troops.

While Sonic dealt with Shadow, Knuckles learned that Eggman's HQ in Metropolis was undermanned. As such, he formulated a military action called "Operation Big Wave" to capture Metroplis with and end the war. Shortly into the attack however, Infinite, used his Phantom Ruby prototype to cast the Resistance's army into chaos. Suffering huge casualties, Knuckles and his army had no choice but to withdraw in defeat. Regrouping with his friends, Knuckles was updated on Shadow's case: according to the real Shadow, who had joined the Resistance, all the familiar faces in Eggman's Army were but replicas created by Infinite. With the Resistance now looking for a way to stop Eggman's Phantom Rubies, which had proven to be the one obstacle that keeps getting in their way, Knuckles was forced to wait while Tails and Classic Sonic investigated a lead. Eventually, the duo returned, having discovered that the Phantom Rubies needed the Death Egg to give them power, or they would be useless. As Tails presented his plan for destroying the Death Egg, Knuckles was eager to join it, but was benched by Amy so he could lead the Resistance. Knuckles would thus instruct the Avatar on how to distract the enemy when they went Guardian Rock to distract the Eggman Army. With the enemy's army occupied, Knuckles sent Sonic to Network Terminal and guided him to the Death Egg's computers. After Sonic shut down the Death Egg's defenses, Knuckles followed Classic Sonic's invasion of the Death Egg, which resulted in its destruction.

With the Phantom Rubies seemingly done for, Knuckles led another attack on Metroplis to capture Eggman. Although Knuckles' plan did not got as intended, as Eggman evaded capture and Sonic and the Avatar temporarily got banished to Null Space, he and the Resistance still managed to seize Metroplis. However, they also discovered that Eggman had prepared a backup power source for the Phantom Rubies underneath his Eggman Empire Fortress.

Knuckles inspiring his soldiers.

With less than an hour left until Eggman's endgame, Knuckles led his army on an attack on the Eggman Empire Tower, where they faced Eggman's replica army and Infinite. There, E-123 Omega came to the rescue of Knuckles and co. when Infinite threatened to kill them. It was then that Infinite executed Eggman's endgame; using his Phantom Ruby, he created a sun to drop on the Resistance. Thanks to the Avatar however, the sun was vanquished, and Knuckles rallied his army to continue the fight. Telling his army to cover his friends, Knuckles stayed behind while Sonic and the Avatar destroyed Infinite. When Classic Sonic then found a way into the Phantom Rubies' reactor, Knuckles sent Sonic and the Avatar, who destroyed the reactor. Thanks to Eggman and his first Phantom Ruby however, thousands of replicas appeared, threatening to overwhelm the Resistance. Fortunately, Sonic, the Avatar and Classic Sonic beat Eggman and destroyed his Phantom Ruby, which made his replica army vanish and left the Resistance as the victors.

In the aftermath, Sonic bid farewell to Classic Sonic, whose return to his dimension was imminent with the Phantom Ruby now gone. Knuckles then followed Sonic's example and set out to clean up the mess Eggman had left the world in. A while later, Knuckles disbanded the Resistance, which had served its purpose. However, Silver reminded him that they still had a lot to do. With the Avatar taking their leave too, Knuckles, although surprised, bid them farewell and praised his efforts. Knuckles and his friends then agreed that even though they would go back to their old lives, they would keep working together to restore the world.

Knuckles does not actually appear in the original version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but he does appear in the 2013 release of the game as a playable character. He also appears in the good ending if the player collects all seven Chaos Emeralds, where he is seen hiding in the bushes as Dr. Eggman is throwing a temper tantrum at his defeat in the end screen similar to his appearance on the cover of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Locking Sonic the Hedgehog 2 onto Sonic & Knuckles will unlock Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, an alternate version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 where Knuckles is the main character; It is also included in most re-releases of the original game. In this version, Knuckles has all his skills from Sonic & Knuckles, including his climb (Sonic the Hedgehog)ing and gliding maneuvers. This allows him to reach previously unknown areas, although his low Spin-Jump makes it difficult to reach otherwise regular sections in the Acts. Sonic and Tails are not playable, having been removed, and there's no two-player mode. Several Monitor power-up items such as Super Rings and 1-Ups have been placed in previously unreachable places for Knuckles to discover. The player can also turn into Super Knuckles as well, being easier to obtain than Super Sonic as Knuckles doesn't lose his Rings upon exiting a Special Stage.

In Sonic Drift 2, Knuckles is one of the seven playable characters in the game. His vehicle in this title is a yellow Hummer H1 called the Tempest.

In gameplay, Knuckles's strength is handeling and his weakness is high speed; an all-round solid racer, Knuckles possesses good cornering, medium acceleration and decent speed. On the race track, Knuckles has two special abilities (something only he has among the playable characters). The first ability is the "Punch", which lets him hit any nearby racers, causing them to drop a Ring, and grind them to a complete stop. If none are in the vicinity, he can use the "Jump", an ability similar to that of Tails' that lets him literally send his car flying into the air (like when hitting a Spring or using a Jump) for about five seconds.

With the lock on-technology provided by Sonic & Knuckles, Sega had originally planned to replace Sonic with Knuckles as the protagonist in the original 1991 title Sonic the Hedgehog, similar to how he was added as a playable character using this method in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, though this idea was ultimately abandoned in favor of the Blue Sphere. The reason for this is that Knuckles' palette conflicted with that of Sonic, causing technical problems.

However, in the 2013 re-release for mobile devices, Knuckles is included into the game as an unlockable character (alongside Tails). As with Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, his special abilities remain the same, being able to glide and climb, although his jump height is still reduced.

Monitor power-ups such as Shields and Invincibility have been added for both Tails (who is now able to fly) and Knuckles to discover, in places which otherwise cannot be reached normally as Sonic.

Knuckles also appears in the game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. In the game, he is a power-type character. His main rival is Wario. Knuckles signature move is the Screw Driver on the Wii and Spiral Uppercut for the DS version.

In Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games, he has five missions and boss fight with Wario in Dream boxing. Missions are:

Throw three times increasing your distance with each throw in Hammer throw

In Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Knuckles appears as a playable character. On the console versions, the player needs to pay 7,500 SEGA Miles to unlock Knuckles, and on the DS and iOS versions, the player can unlock him with 500,000 SEGA miles. For the racing in this game, he is driving a red quad bike named the Land Breaker.

In gameplay, Knuckles has high maneuverability and acceleration, but low speed and turbo-boost. His All-Star Move, "Emerald Power", allows Knuckles to glide above the track and unleash an earthquake that stuns all opponents. On the DS and iOS versions however, his attack is short-range only.

In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Knuckles appears as a playable character again. In this game, he is available from the beginning. For the racing in this game, he is driving a backwards trike designed after himself in a gliding stance, which can transform into a boat, a plane, or a car, depending on the surrounding terrain. It is implied that Knuckles entered the race because Sonic and Tails invited him.[28]

In gameplay, Knuckles has above-average speed, acceleration, handling and boost. His All-Star Move lets him use the Master Emerald to create green energy blasts (similar to the Chaos Blast) that can attack surrounding racers.

Knuckles makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (in the unlockable Green Hill Zone stage where he, Tails, and Silver run through the shuttle loop in the background). He also appears as a trophy and a sticker:

Trophy

Name

Image

ID

Description

Knuckles

538

A powerful red echidna also known by his full name, Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles resides on Angel Island, where he guards the Master Emerald. Both friend and rival of Sonic, Knuckles is a martial-arts expert who can break through rocks with his spiked fists. In addition, he can climb walls and use the wind to glide through the air.

Knuckles makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (in the unlockable Green Hill Zone stage where he, Tails, and Silver run through the shuttle loop in the background). Both versions of Super Smash Bros. 4 also include a downloadable Knuckles costume exclusive to Mii Brawlers.

Knuckles also appears as a trophy in both versions of the game:

Wii U Trophy

Name

Picture

Description

Knuckles the Echidna

Knuckles the Echidna is the dedicated guardian of the Master Emerald, rarely leaving his post on the floating Angel Island. His serious, one-track-minded approach puts him at odds with his rival, Sonic, but the two somehow manage to be friends all the same.

Knuckles the Echidna is the dedicated guardian of the Master Emerald, rarely leaving his post on the floating Angel Island. His serious, one-track-minded approach puts him at odds with his rival, Sonic, but the two somehow manage to be friends all the same.

In Sonic Jump Fever, Knuckles appears as a playable character. In this game, he can be unlocked after either collecting fifty Knuckles Character Tokens or paying 750 Red Star Rings for him. In gameplay, Knuckles' powerful Double Jump allows him to ascend rapidly and smash through rebound platforms and rock falls. The power-ups he can utilize in this game include the Stun, Spring Shoes, Magnet and Detonate.

Knuckles also appears on the game's preset leaderboards, placing third in each Zone. When playing a Zone, a destructible monitor containing Knuckles's portrait will appear if his score has been passed.

Knuckles is independent, wild, tough and a loner by nature. Like how Sonic embodies the wind, Knuckles embodies the mountain;[29] stern, unmovable and anchored to his duty. Due to having lived in seclusion for most of his life, Knuckles is a rather antisocial and reclusive individual. As such, he cares very little about what others think, which makes him bluntly honest, straight-forward and somewhat egotistical.[30]

Knuckles is fiercely loyal to his homeland and does whatever is in his power to protect it. He prefers to stay close to the island's current emerald shrine to keep a watchful eye over everything at his home. Despite this devotion, Knuckles is willing to leave his duty whenever his help is needed, or when he feels the Master Emerald and Angel Island will be safe. Though Knuckles has found other lifestyles appealing, he will never trade away his duties as he is far too devoted to his role as guardian. When not performing his duties, Knuckles prefers spending his time practicing his fighting skills, going treasure hunting or hang out with his friends.

Knuckles is usually solemn, stoic, collected and usually likes to be by himself. He is likewise stubborn, headstrong and inflexible, preferring to do things his way, which causes him to clash with others. Regardless, he is very strong-willed, seldom wavering in his determination and will not give up on his goals once he has set them. While he is cool and determined in battle, Knuckles has an extremely short and wild temper and is hard to reason with when he is angry. Though his temper has often been known to get him into trouble, Knuckles has also learned to use it to his advantage by channeling it into his fighting skills.

Despite being a silent loner, Knuckles is heroic, brave, kind-hearted and selfless, risking his life to save anyone or get them out of trouble, and shows empathy for people, even if they are a villain or enemy. He is likewise a loyal and caring friend, who is always willing to help his friends out in tight situations and will do anything to protect them. When not angered, Knuckles is pretty laid-back and never cracks under pressure. He can also be very understanding on the sly and doesn't take kindly to people who disrespect or hurt his friends, or innocents in any way.

Having been living much of his life in isolation, Knuckles grew up believing in honesty and holds a firm and steadfast belief that there is good in everyone, which always lets him give people second chances. Because of his lack of social ingenuity, however, it makes him very naive, incredibly gullible, fast about forgiving people and easily misled, which has given him a history of being tricked by Eggman. This has made Knuckles aggressive and suspicious towards anyone he deems questionable. Over time, however, Knuckles has gotten better about this and is more suspicious concerning Eggman's trickery. Once he finds out he has been tricked, Knuckles can get quite angered, but quickly regains enough of his composure to start working towards a resolution immediately.

Though not dull-witted, Knuckles is often prone to rash and ill-advised actions. While not above picking complex strategies, Knuckles often chooses force to be the solution, pushing himself through obstacles while focusing on his goal and ignoring other factors along the way. When in his right element on composed, however, Knuckles can be quite clever, sharp-witted and sneaky, such as setting several successful traps for Sonic and Tails on Angel Island when they first arrived. He is also capable of learning from his mistakes. Knuckles has also proven himself to have a high degree of leadership skills, most noticeably during his time as the commander of the Resistance. He is noted to be very charismatic with inspirational speeches, and he has a flair of daring plans that provided the Resistance with a much-needed offensive during the War to Take Back the Planet. However, for all his skills as a leader, Knuckles is still easily distracted and prefers to be out on the battlefield rather than in the command center.

Knuckles is said to be shy around women,[31] which makes him act awkwardly around girls like Amy, Blaze, and Rouge. Because of his secluded lifestyle on Angel Island, Knuckles feels very uncomfortable in industrialized or crowded cities and places and being around hi-tech objects or gadgets (mostly because he's not inclined).

Knuckles seems to have lightened up somewhat in Sonic Generations. While he still displays some brooding, headstrong and stubborn attitude, he is shown being better to acknowledge his shortcomings and displays more personal restraint and better social interaction.

Knuckles punching the ground with enough force to trigger an eruption.

Knuckles' trademark ability is his immense superhuman strength, which is so vast that he can pulverize massive boulders, punch through solid steel, and lift objects several times his size and weight with ease.[32][33] By comparison, Knuckles' strength is stated to equal Sonic's speed;[34] considering Sonic's measured footspeed, which range between Mach 1-5, it would mean that Knuckles is capable of lifting 100-500 metric tons.[note 1] This makes Knuckles one of the physically strongest characters in the series.[33] Knuckles' strength seems to lie in his upper body, particularly in his arms and fists, the latter of which are noted to be as hard as rocks.[35]

Knuckles is shown to possess the ability to run at breakneck speeds, enough to let him keep up with both Sonic and Tails' running speed.[36] He is even able to run fast enough to create afterimages of himself. Even so, he is not quite as fast as Sonic at his maximum speed, as Knuckles is noted to run fairly slow by comparison. Additionally, while Knuckles is capable of executing rapid punches in quick succession within a split-second,[37] he has been noted to have slow movements in combat.[38]

Knuckles possesses near-maximized physical endurance and durability to match his astounding strength. He can thus take just as much punishment as he can dish out and has achieved numerous feats of impressive durability. These include surviving a bomb exploding right in front of him through sheer toughness,[19][39] and going through atmospheric reentry and then land on the ground unharmed.[40] Also, despite the force of the impacts Knuckles' fists receive when punching at high forces, he is never phased by the recoil, regardless of what he hits or how hard he is hitting. Knuckles additionally has enough stamina to hold out against an army of enemies without rest.

Unlike Sonic, Knuckles is a very experienced swimmer. Due to his interest of being a treasure hunter, he can swim to incredible depths and with both great speed and skill. Knuckles is also a proficient burrower, able to dig into any wall or floor and excels at tunneling through subterranean regions at great speed.[41]

Knuckles is also shown to have sharp reflexes and acrobatic skills, enough to let him do special tricks and movements while in mid-air, pull off various Spin Attack maneuvers at high speed, and grind along rails just as fast as Sonic while doing tricks and evading obstacles.[32] Additionally, Knuckles can jump several stories into the air from a standstill position.[42] While not being quite as acrobatic as Sonic and Shadow, Knuckles makes up for his lack of agility through his wide range of movement abilities. By stretching his arms and legs outwards while airborne, Knuckles can catch the air under his dread-lock-like spines to ride on air currents,[43] allowing him to expertly glide long distances through mid-air. Also, by using the spikes on his fists, Knuckles can scale any kind of surface with ease.

Knuckles has the uncanny ability to sense the chaos energy of the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, or similar objects like Sol Emeralds, and can track down their "signals" which makes him a living Emerald Detector. Like Sonic and Shadow, Knuckles can also harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds to empower himself.

Being the guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles is a very powerful fighter. He is a master in a number of martial arts,[30][44] focusing on hand-to-hand combat, and is capable of taking on even the most powerful of opponents without rest, such as when he was able to take down several of the military-trained Nocturnus Clan soldiers. Even more so, he has been able to fight Sonic the Hedgehog to a standstill on several occasions. Also, in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Tails noted that anyone to beat Knuckles in a fight must be very powerful, a testament to his fighting abilities.

When in battle, Knuckles makes use of his powerful arms and fists to take on his foes, with his specialty lying in punching moves where he uses his spiked fists for some devastating effects. In terms of fighting style, Knuckles' focuses specifically on power, using robust and forceful punches, such as power-packed jabs or piercing uppercuts to deal damaging blows to his opponents. Once he catches an opponent in his combos, he will keep them trapped by keeping up his strikes, not allowing his opponents a chance to counterattack. For stronger strikes, Knuckles tend to build up momentum with his fists by swinging them around, before hitting his opponent with full force. In his Major Eruption move in Sonic Battle, Knuckles takes advantage of his burrowing abilities, hiding underground and hitting opponents with an uppercut as he leaps out when his opponent least expects it.

Despite being a powerhouse in close combat, as stated by Sonic, most of Knuckles' fighting moves are slow and easy to read, making Knuckles more vulnerable to the fastestcharacters who can read his moves and rapidly counterattack.

Knuckles' various moves and techniques revolve around his trademark Punch Attack, where he attacks his opponents with various punching combos, including surrounding his fists with fire. His Spiral Upper allows him to strike foes above him with a spinning uppercut, and his Drill Claw sends him spiraling down on his foes from above. Similar to those, he also has his Screwdriver which allows him to home directly at his enemies. For wider impacts, Knuckles can use his Hammer Punch or Knuckle Slam to create wide tremors or explosions that effect everything within their effect range.

Knuckles has also been shown being able to use Sonic's trademark Spin Attack and Spin Dash where he curls tightly into a concussive ball while in locomotion to damage, mow down, or burrow through obstacles and foes. He does, however, not use these moves or their variants, such as the Homing Attack, as often as Sonic and Shadow do.

When gliding, Knuckles can also use his Grinding/Gliding Knuckles Attack in conjunction with his movements, using the spikes on his fists to damage any foes he comes into contact with during his descend. With his Maximum Heat Knuckles Attack, Knuckles glides through the air at high speeds, destroying any foes within his attack range.

Knuckles is an expert treasure hunter with infallible instincts (which is referred to as his treasure sense),[45][46] which is shown during his several hunts for Emerald Shards and can be considered one of the best treasure hunters in the world, if not the best.[47] He can sense the presence of treasure nearby and is even able to pick up its scent and sniff his way to it.[46][48] While not exactly highly intelligent, Knuckles is well-versed in ancient cultures, ruins, and legends, and is very knowledgeable on the subject, such as when he was able to translate the ancient texts at Gigan Rocks with little effort.

Knuckles has been shown to possess some mystical abilities of his own, possibly due to his close connection to the Master Emerald. In addition to summoning lightning bolts. He displays some limited geokinetic abilities, such as harnessing elemental earth energies to protect or heal himself, or calling forth meteors from above, which is described as "supernatural control of earth". Knuckles is also one of the few who knows how to access and utilize the Master Emerald, allowing him to tap into the gem's powers to utilize its different properties or empower himself.

Knuckles has proven himself to be a skilled Extreme Gear rider, having proven himself a worthy competitor against many of the world's best Extreme Gear riders. To best put his skills in perspective, Knuckles was able to beat Storm the Albatross in a race, who is regarded as a legendary wind Master. When riding his Extreme Gear, Knuckles can bash his way through obstacles effortlessly and engage in close combat with his fellow racers, without losing control. With his Extreme Gear skills, Knuckles can even enhance his physical abilities.

With the seven Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles is able to attain a Super State known as Super Knuckles. In this state, all of Knuckles' abilities far surpass his normal ones. In addition, he is able to fly and is virtually invulnerable. However, this transformation consumes a lot of energy and requires Rings to be maintained.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, Knuckles can transform into an extended version of Super Knuckles, called Hyper Knuckles, with the seven Super Emeralds. This form basically shares the same abilities and powers as Super Knuckles but on an even higher level.

By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Knuckles can use specific Color Powers to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser or even a planet, each one possessing its own unique abilities. So far, Knuckles has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill, and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.

Sonic is Knuckles' good friend and rival. They have known each other for a long time, but their relationship seems to be somewhat complicated. The two do not understand their differences, Sonic being cool and cheeky and Knuckles being tough and serious. The two of them were initially enemies, due to Dr. Eggman's lies, but after Knuckles realized the truth, he befriended Sonic. Despite this, however, Knuckles still held a somewhat inhospitable attitude towards Sonic, due to their different points of view and natures. This is hinted in Sonic Heroes, however, that this might stem from the fact that Knuckles is jealous of Sonic's independent nature and freedom, finding it enviable, though he would never admit it.

Knuckles is often tricked by Dr. Eggman into believing that Sonic is the enemy, being this a great cause for many of their confrontations. This would make them get into fights and Sonic teases Knuckles whenever this happens, in which Knuckles does not take it very well. This mostly occured in early games such as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles and Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, where the relationship between them wasn't clearly defined, with the two having just met each other. However, since then he has gotten better with this and has become more aware of Dr. Eggman's plans. With Sonic's speed paralleling Knuckles' strength in every way, their fights are always climatic.

The rivalry has all but disappeared in most continuities, its prominence having been diminished considerably over the years, mostly after the introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic Adventure 2 as Sonic's new rival, but remains as a sort of game between the two. It actually serves as the plot for the game Sonic Rivals, where Dr. Eggman (really Eggman Nega in disguise) captures Tails and the Master Emerald and turns them into cards. Knuckles tells Sonic that he must get to Eggman first and save the Master Emerald, so Sonic decides that they should race each other, which Knuckles agreed on.

Over time, Knuckles' relationship with Sonic has improved greatly and he has come to see Sonic as both a rival and one of his best friends (the other being Tails), helping each other in many situations, being considered a vital part of Sonic's team. The two have shown teamwork several times, as seen in Sonic Heroes and in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

In Sonic Generations, Knuckles helps organize Sonic's birthday party. In this game, it is shown that Knuckles is actually impressed by Sonic and has belief in his abilities, but does not directly want to admit it. This is shown when Knuckles responded, "Thanks for the help, not that I needed it!" after Modern Sonic saves Knuckles and also when Knuckles told Sonic when he was not "half bad" after fixing the time, beating Time Eater and saving his friends. If Classic Sonic saves him, then he compliments Sonic by responding, "Thanks Sonic, you did a good job back there", although he also asks him if he gained weight.

In Sonic Lost World, Knuckles helps Sonic in his task to rescue the animal friends from Dr. Eggman, working separately (alongside Amy) from him and Tails. Through the game, Knuckles jokingly teases Sonic by telling him he could finish faster, although at the end of the game, he is happy to see Sonic and Tails returning from their adventure.

In Sonic Forces, Knuckles takes the position of commander of the Resistance against the Eggman Empire. In this game, Knuckles is shown to be much friendlier towards Sonic, as he is seen worried about his well-being when he had disappeared, and is actually joyful when Rouge informs him the hedgehog is alive. When Knuckles hears Sonic's voice in the Avatar's communicator, he expresses happiness, although he is also concerned about his friend's escape from the rebuilt Death Egg. As Sonic returns to Earth, Knuckles tells his friend that seeing him back was "the best news they could have had in months".

Tails is a close friend of Knuckles. They talk more than they do with Sonic, and Knuckles generally shows a more amicable attitude towards Tails as well.

Although Knuckles is not as much a rival to Tails as he is to Sonic, Tails occasionally irritates Knuckles with his technobabble. Knuckles seems to enjoy teasing Tails from time to time as well, like when he scares Tails with the idea that they fought with Shadow's ghost just before entering Hang Castle. Despite this, Knuckles is probably Tails' best friend after Sonic, and the two have teamed up several times through the series.

Knuckles has shown that he cares about Tails, having assured Tails he had nothing to worry about when the fox cub once grew worried about Eggman's plots in Sonic Heroes; in that same game, the two were also hanging out in the Tornado 2, before reuniting with Sonic later, with Knuckles being generally nicer to Tails than Sonic during their adventure. He similarly defended Tails after Wave the Swallow taunted Tails in Sonic Riders. In Sonic Forces, both of them (along with the rest of the Resistance) agree to be "friends forever", at the end of the game.

Although they are good friends, Tails and Knuckles have fought each other on a few occasions (usually when Knuckles has been tricked by Eggman), but in the end, there are never any resentments between them.

Amy has only been seen interacting with Knuckles on rare occasions. In Sonic Heroes when playing as Team Sonic; at the beginning of the fight against Team Rose, Knuckles will taunt Sonic about Amy saying, "Have you been messing with that girl's heart again Sonic?"

In Sonic Generations, Amy accidentally hurts Knuckles with a great force (which causes him to crash into a tree) after he said that Sonic "wasn't half bad", whereas she thought he was "all great". However, Amy does not notice how hard she hit Knuckles because she was busy swooning at Sonic.

In Sonic Lost World, Amy and Knuckles, work separately from Sonic and Tails in saving the animals from Dr. Eggman.

Eggman telling Knuckles that Sonic is also seaching the pieces of the Master Emerald.

Although at the beginning they were partners, Knuckles is the third most formidable foe the mad scientist has, after Sonic and Tails, thwarting his plans most of the time.

Knuckles is constantly tricked by Dr. Eggman as well, specially whenever Sonic's involved. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, Eggman had tricked him saying that Sonic's the enemy who is stealing the Chaos Emeralds, and because of Knuckles' simplicity, he had believed Eggman and played various tricks on Sonic as well as fighting him. In Sonic Adventure, Eggman deceives Knuckles again, telling him that Sonic was looking for the pieces of the Master Emerald. While at first Knuckles was skeptical of Eggman's claims, he later saw Sonic holding a green Chaos Emerald, which he mistaked for the pieces he was looking for, and fought his friend, although, he later realizes he was wrong and made peace with Sonic.

Knuckles been tricked by Eggman in spinoff titles such as Sonic Advance 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, but as the games pass by, Knuckles has stopped falling for Eggman's tricks, and has generally become more aware of his plans, as mentioned in the guide for Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.

Knuckles has also shown a rough attitude towards him, specially in later games, such as the Sonic Rivals series, even once stating that he will not believe anything he says, a twist to his former attitude against him and something even Eggman is taken aback from.

Rouge the Bat is Knuckles' rival. Knuckles and Rouge have been fighting over the Master Emerald ever since the two met. Rouge was designed to be Knuckles' compatibility just like how Shadow was designed to be Sonic's compatibility when it comes to basic rivalry and skills.

In Sonic Adventure 2, when Knuckles purposely shatters the Master Emerald to save it from Dr. Eggman, Knuckles and Rouge both go looking for its pieces. Eventually, Knuckles has to hunt Rouge down for the remaining pieces, and the two have their final confrontation at the level, Meteor Herd. But during their fight, he saves her life instead after she slips on a narrow beam and was about to fall into a burning pit of lava. After the rescue, Rouge and Knuckles share a long moment gazing at each other, before Rouge snatches her hand away and retorts with ungratefulness and teasing. In the end, Rouge gives him the remaining pieces of the Master Emerald and stubbornly complains that "They stink like echidnas do!". Knuckles gathers the shards to complete the Emerald and glances over to her, muttering, "I'm sorry if I hurt you...", and runs off. Before the scene fades out, Rouge gives a thoughtful smile over her shoulder before exiting.

In Sonic Heroes, at the end of Team Dark's story, Rouge commented that she would go look for the Master Emerald, "since that irritating echidna is here." However, in the last scene, she went to Knuckles and coquettishly hinted about going to look for someone else's treasure. Knuckles smiles and says "She never gives up, does she?"

In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, codex states that "there's a sort of unstated connection between Rouge and Knuckles that neither are overly willing to explore." Rouge even admits that Knuckles is cute but just not her type during the game.

In Sonic Rivals 2, the two are teamed up. Rouge's reason for this is because she had a mysterious client who told her that if she found all the Emeralds, she would be rewarded. She teamed up with Knuckles in search for the identity of her client. They fight the Ifrit to get back to normal depending on which side you play.

In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Rouge and Knuckles were bitter allies during their mission to travel back to the present day but joined up with him to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds to bring Sonic back to life.

In Sonic Colors, Knuckles explains to Rouge that he is at Starlight Carnival because he received an invitation from Dr. Eggman, but proving that he did not get tricked. Rouge tells him that the invitation was written by her, causing Knuckles to burst in anger.

In Sonic Generations, Knuckles and Rouge oddly seem to be friendly to each other at the party, as they are seen setting the table, eating, smiling and talking to each other.

When Knuckles and Storm met, Knuckles punched Storm really hard while the latter was trying to commit a theft, which caused Storm to fall from his Extreme Gear. Ever since then, the two have been rivals over who is the stronger man. When Storm lost against Knuckles in the World Grand Prix, he falsely accused him of having cheated. In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, the two also showed a spark of anger when they saw each other again. In this encounter, Knuckles thought of Storm as a "meathead" while Storm wanted to settle the score between them, causing great tension between the two.

Years later, Knuckles met Sleet and Dingo who tricked him into believing that Sonic, Manic and Sonia were thieves after his island's Chaos Emerald. When Sonic, Manic and Sonia arrived on the Floating Island to find their mother, Knuckles attacked them until Sonic saved his life. After clearing up the misunderstanding, Knuckles and the hedgehog siblings teamed up to reclaim the Chaos Emerald Sleet and Dingo had stolen before the island fell from the sky and they became the allies Aleena wanted. When Dr. Robotnik found another Chaos Emerald, Knuckles aided Sonic, Manic and Sonia in reclaiming and containing the Chaos Emerald when it ran rampant.

In the anime series Sonic X, Knuckles originally lived on a parallel version of Earth in another dimension, where he guards the Master Emerald. He takes his job seriously and has a fearsome temper with a "chip on his shoulder". During one of the battles with Dr. Eggman, an accidental large-scale Chaos Control sent Knuckles, Sonic, Dr. Eggman, and their friends to the human world. Upon becoming stranded in this world, Knuckles' only desire was to get back to Angel Island quickly. Preferring to do things his own way, Knuckles spend most of his initial time on Earth traveling alone rather than joining up with Sonic and their friends, though he would occasionally come to their aid to fight Eggman and befriend others.

When Angel Island was transported to Earth after he failed to work together with Eggman to bring them back home, Knuckles returned to guarding the Master Emerald while helping Sonic with other major threats. Eventually though, Knuckles and everyone from his world returned home after learning their presence was threating to freeze time.

Six months after returning home, Knuckles was persuaded to join Sonic and his friends in their fight against Metarex, an alien race of cyborgs that was a threat to the safety of the entire galaxy, when they needed him and the Master Emerald to power the Blue Typhoon. During the final showdown, Knuckles was forced to sacrifice the Master Emerald to defeat the Metarex's leader, Dark Oak. After defeating the Metarex, Knuckles returned home to look over the Master Emerald until its power could return naturally.

When Sonic and Tails came to the Land of Darkness to stop the Robot Generator, Knuckles came to the duo aid when they came under attack by Metal Robotnik and helped destroy the metallic menace. When it turned out that the Robot Generator was a trap made by Dr. Robotnik to complete Hyper Metal Sonic, Knuckles helped Sonic, Tails and their allies keep Metal and Robotnik from destroying the world.

In the Sonic Boom franchise, Knuckles hails from Angel Island and is the muscle of Team Sonic, a group of heroes who protects Seaside Island and the earth at large from Dr. Eggman and his legion of robots. An orphan and the last of his kind, Knuckles is not very bright, less independent and a little slow on the uptake, but he still has his soft spots: he loves nature and is extremely loyal to his friends. Also, while they are friends, Knuckles has a friendly rivalry going on with Sonic.

In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, Knuckles was the eighteenth Guardian of Angel Island and a member of the Brotherhood of Guardians. Born to Locke and Lara-Le, Knuckles' DNA was indirectly tampered with and his unhatched egg was irradiated with Chaos Emerald radiation by Locke so he had a chance of facing a horrible threat in the future which Locke had seen in a vision. The result was a child with incredible powers–a "living Chaos Emerald."

Knuckles was raised by in Guardian tradition by his father in the wilds on Angel Island and then left to fend for himself at ten. Knuckles learned self-reliance while his forefathers monitored his process, sometimes lending him a hidden hand. Despite the Brotherhood's neutrality, Knuckles joined the First Robotnik War after a meeting with Sonic the Hedgehog and later the Second Robotnik War. The mysteries around his life began to unravel when the effects of the Ultimate Annihilator returned both the Dark Legion and the city of Echidnaopolis to Angel Island. Knuckles was exposed to a family and heritage he knew he had.

As his prowess grew in facing new challenges, Knuckles' Chaos power grew out of control, transforming him into Chaos Knuckles, a form with god-like power, but had little to no control. The transformation culminated when Knuckles was forced to fight Mammoth Mogul to save his distant ancestor and old foe Dimitri, where he released all his power to stop Mogul and died in the process. Knuckles joined the Chaos Force to a degree even the Ancient Walkers had reached. However, with his cosmic awareness, he sensed the Xorda Invasion of Mobius. Using his unlimited power, Knuckles returned to life - but sacrificed his "living Chaos Emerald" quality, leaving him weak and powerless until the Master Emerald's energies restored his powers. His Chaos Force connection was later abused Dr. Finitevus who used dark magic to transform Knuckles into Enerjak. As Enerjak, Knuckles made sweeping changes to Angel Island and the world. He was restored, but at the cost of Locke's life, making him withdrawn to almost everyone. He endured further losses when he later lost almost all the echidnas on Mobius to Thrash the Tasmanian Devil.

Following the events of Worlds Collide, Knuckles and his history became nearly indistinguishable from his game counterpart. Assisting in the Shattered World Crisis, Knuckles went on a hunt for the Master Emerald's shards after shattering it to keep it safe.

In Sonic the Comic, 8,000 years ago, Knuckles was the leader of the Echidna Empire's armies under Pochacamac, fighting the Drakon Empire. Presumably by being placed in suspended animation, Knuckles survived to the present day, but with no memories of his earlier life. Seemingly the only echidna left in this era, Knuckles came to live on the Floating Island where he alone guarded the Chaos Emeralds. In addition to a near obsession of protecting his island, Knuckles is greatly affected by the uncertainty of the fate of his own people.

When Dr. Robotnik and his Death Egg II crashed on the Floating Island, Knuckles was tricked by the doctor into believing Sonic the Hedgehog sought to steal the island's Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles thus allowed Robotnik to rebuild the Death Egg II on the island and assisted him in fighting Sonic and stealing Sonic's own six Chaos Emeralds so they could be combined with Knuckles' into one set of Emeralds. Knuckles, however, was skeptical enough to conceal that he had the missing Grey Emerald, so when Robotnik revealed his betrayal and tried to absorb the Emeralds' power, Knuckles used the Grey Emerald to defeat him.

From that point on, Knuckles worked as an ally to the Freedom Fighters in the battles with Robotnik. When Dr. Zachary appeared, Knuckles stopped him from destroying Mobius, but then had to spend the next period undoing the subsequent damage to the Floating Island, which culminated as he returned home to stop Robotnik and Zachary from turning the Emerald Hill refugees into an organic computer. After Robotnik had been overthrown, Knuckles came to help Sonic and his friends' with the following threats, such as when Robotnik tried to force Mobius into environmental collapse and when Chaos was unleashed.

The character has received generally positive attention. According to IGN, fans "seemed legitimately happy" with the addition of the character of Knuckles, who was popular enough to get marquee billing in Sonic & Knuckles, but the writer felt that characters that came after him were going "overboard." IGN's Colin Moriarty singled out the introduction of both Knuckles and Tails as when the series became "iffy" and listed them and all other characters in the series, sans Sonic and Robotnik, as being 2nd most in need to "die" on his top 10 list. In contrast, he was listed as the best Sonic character by Official Nintendo Magazine based on the impact he brought to the Sonic games in which he first appeared.

Complex listed Knuckles as their eleventh most wanted character in the next Super Smash Bros. game. In another article, Complex regarded Knuckles as a better character than Sonic, and praised his gliding and climbing abilities, stating "even if his levels were a little more challenging than Sonic's, the thrill of being able to explore certain parts of levels that the blue-colored hero could not was worth it". Game Rant included Knuckles on their list of "Top 10 Third-Party Characters that Could Appear in the New Super Smash Bros.", commenting "This punch-drunk brawler knows how to serve up a buffet of knuckle sandwiches, and there’s no question that he’s one of the most fitting characters to occupy a spot on the roster".

Mega Zone's review of Knuckles' Chaotix praised the introduction of a new protagonist, whom it deemed "rougher [and] tougher" in comparison to the "spineless" Sonic. Mean Machines Sega called Knuckles' powers "impressive" and the character overall more useful and promising than Tails.[80] Sega Magazine stated that Knuckles "looks cooler" than Sonic, comparing him to Spider-Man, and suggested he be given his own game. Sega Magazine later called him "groovy" and "ace", concluding that they "love him."

"As far back as I can remember, I've been living here on this dark island... Always guarding the Master Emerald from anything that could harm it. I don't know why I was given this job... Why it was my fate... Destined to be here... forever!" - Knuckles thinking about his life at the beginning of his story in Sonic Adventure.

"No way!" - When Knuckles tries to dig on something like metal or steel in Sonic Adventure.

"It's closer..." - When the Emerald Radar turns red.

"I sure don't wanna fall off." - Knuckles when the player turns the camera too much in Sonic Adventure.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I think Tails is right about this." - Knuckles after hearing Tails' plan to defeat Perfect Chaos by helping Sonic go Super in Sonic Adventure.

"Ah finally..." - Restoring the Master Emerald in Sonic Adventure 2.

"The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one who unifies the chaos. Only you can do this. STOP THE CHAOS EMERALDS!" - Knuckles pleading with the Master Emerald to neutralize the power of the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Adventure 2.

"Look who's calling who a thief." - While Eggman was stealing the Master Emerald and Rouge called him a thief in Sonic Adventure 2

"I will protect the Master Emerald." - When starting a multiplayer stage in Sonic Adventure 2.

"That's a good one, YOUR Emerald. Talking to you is a waste of time!" - Knuckles before his second fight with Rouge in Sonic Adventure 2.

"I feel some strange energy..." - While walking around in the Space Colony ARK right before Sonic Chaos Controls in front of him in Sonic Adventure 2.

"It's over..." - Knuckles after dying in Sonic Adventure 2.

"Yeah! This is perfect!" - After getting an A Rank.

"I am one with the Master Emerald" - Starting a treasure hunt on 2-Player mode of Sonic Adventure 2

"If that's what you thought, you should've given me them in the first place." Knuckles after Rouge gives him the pieces of the Master Emerald in Sonic Adventure 2.

"I must...protect...the Master Emerald..." - Knuckles, after losing to Rouge in their first, and only, battle on the ARK, in Sonic Adventure 2.

In addition, the game has two different themes depending on the version. In the standalone version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the song had techno beats. In Sonic & Knuckles as well as the combined version, it's changed to the aforementioned percussion theme.

According to the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 manual, Knuckles' favorite food is grapes. This is referenced many times through the series.

In Sonic Generations, once Sky Sanctuary and Knuckles are restored, grapes can be seen growing on a tree behind Knuckles. This is an Easter Egg for Knuckles, as grapes are his favorite food.

Strangely, in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, the cutscene Knuckles is slightly pinker than the playable Knuckles. This is due to the palettes conflicting with the HUD items; the playable Knuckles was able to be perfected so this would not happen.

Due to Knuckles' guillible nature, he has a tendency of getting tricked by his nemesis, Dr. Eggman, (and/or his lackeys) either to work for him or, against his allies/friends, particularly Sonic and Tails. This mostly occured during the classic games, and has mostly faded out as time passed.

Knuckles' counterparts in spin-off media also suffer from this problem. As an example, he has been tricked four times in Sonic X.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, finishing the game with only the Chaos Emeralds leaves a picture of the character's Super State on the Game Select screen. If the game is completed with Knuckles, an image of Super Knuckles is shown. In this image, he appears to be the same color as Knuckles, but with a bright purple aura.

In the earlier games, the letters K.T.E. (Knuckles the Echidna) are by his life icon, instead of "Knuckles" because the name display could not support more than five letters.

Due to space limitations, in Sonic Drift 2, Knuckles' name is spelled "Knucles", without the second "K".

Knuckles' eye color has varied in the Sonic series, changing from blue to purple. In Sonic Battle, he is actually portrayed with both eye colors (blue for the fighting and purple for the cutscenes.)

He and Shadow were originally confirmed to appear in Sonic Unleashed, though neither were seen nor mentioned in the released game.

Knuckles' music was one of the reasons for the "Mild Lyrics" warning in Sonic Adventure 2. "Unknown From M.E.", "Deeper" and "Kick the Rock!" were among them.

Knuckles and Amy are the only 2 Sonic characters who appeared to have "aged"; Knuckles going from 15 to 16, and Amy going from 8 to 12.

Knuckles, along with Sonic and Dr. Eggman are the only characters whose Japanese voice actors have voiced their character in all Sonic games since Sonic Adventure.

Knuckles is the only playable character in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) who does not finish a level/boss/town mission. Despite this, Knuckles does have a victory pose and quotes depend on the rank.

During multiplayer on Sonic Heroes, the white crest symbol on Knuckles' chest will disappear while he is taunting the opponent.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble and Sonic & Knuckles, Knuckles' socks were colored yellow during cutscenes, as it interfered with the HUD palette. The playable version of Knuckles has green socks, though.

In Sonic R, Knuckles' shoes instead resemble Tails' white-tipped shoes, save for the metal tops and green socks. In still art, however, his shoes are correctly colored, but the yellow stripe covers the back too.

In 2D games such as Knuckles Chaotix and Sonic Mania, Knuckles is colored pinkish rather than red. However, his official artwork shows him colored correctly (red).

The crest on Knuckles' chest has been erroneously colored peach several times. In later games, though, it's colored white.

Knuckles is the only character in the franchise with purple eyes.

One of Knuckles' nicknames is "Knuckle," as stated in the Japanese manual of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

In Sonic Battle, Sonic once calls Knuckles a "spiky-headed mole". This is a pun on how echidnas and moles have the same burrowing prowess. It is also a play on the Japanese term for echidna, which literally translates as "needle-mole".

If the player pauses at the right moment, in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, when the sign is twirling in the air, Knuckles' color will be blue instead of red. This does not occur in Sonic & Knuckles.

Super Sonic is invincible to any damage, but somehow Knuckles knocked the Chaos Emeralds out of him in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, if one glitches Knuckles into Sonic's part of Marble Garden Zone Act 2, Tails will still fly him up so he can defeat Dr. Robotnik. It is the only time this can be done without a cheat.

In Sonic Colors, Knuckles is the only one of the "Side Quest" characters to have five poses. All the others have four.

Knuckles' crescent-shaped symbol on his body was originally going to be the NIKE logo on him as part of a short-lived sponsorship deal.

Knuckles' gloves are a "Rare" weapon in the SEGA game Phantasy Star Portable 2; it was named "Sonic Knuckles", either referring to the strength or to the universe of the Sonic series.

There is a possibility that this ability of Knuckles' treasure hunting ability is a reference to the fact that real-life echidnas are equipped with electrosensors.

The character has received positive attention. According to IGN's Levi Buchanan, fans "seemed legitimately happy" with the addition of the character of Knuckles, who was popular enough to get marquee billing in Sonic & Knuckles, but Buchanan felt that characters who came after him were going "overboard".[50] IGN's Colin Moriarty singled out the introduction of both Knuckles and Tails as when the series became "iffy" and listed them and all other characters in the series, sans Sonic and Robotnik, as being 2nd most in need to "die" on his top 10 list.[51] In contrast, he was listed as the best Sonic character by Official Nintendo Magazine based on the impact he brought to the Sonic games in which he first appeared.[52]

According to official Sonic Team polls, Knuckles is the fourth most popular character in the series, following behind Tails, Shadow, and Sonic.[53] Elton Jones from Complex listed Knuckles as his eleventh most wanted character in the next Super Smash Bros. game.[54] In another article, Complex regarded Knuckles as a better character than Sonic, and praised his gliding and climbing abilities, stating "even if his levels were a little more challenging than Sonic's, the thrill of being able to explore certain parts of levels that the blue-colored hero could not was worth it".[55] Riley Little from GameRant included Knuckles on his list of the "Top 10 Third-Party Characters that Could Appear in the New Super Smash Bros.", commenting "This punch-drunk brawler knows how to serve up a buffet of knuckle sandwiches, and there’s no question that he’s one of the most fitting characters to occupy a spot on the roster".[56]

Mega Zone's review of Knuckles' Chaotix praised the introduction of a new protagonist, whom it deemed "rougher [and] tougher" in comparison to the "spineless" Sonic.[57]Mean Machines Sega called Knuckles' powers "impressive" and the character overall more useful and promising than Tails.[58]Sega Magazine stated that Knuckles "looks cooler" than Sonic, comparing him to Spider-Man, and suggested he be given his own game.[59]Sega Magazine later called him "groovy" and "ace", concluding that they "love him."[60]

In an episode of Sonic Boom, Knuckles revealed he is a feminist when interacting with Amy. This attracted media attention for how the character made such a deep comment; the writers of the series responded that it was fun creating the part.[61]

In January 2018, players began to flood the virtual reality video game VRChat with avatars depicting a deformed version of the character called "Ugandan Knuckles". The character stemmed from a 2017 review of Sonic Lost World by YouTube user Gregzilla as well as from fans of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds streamer Forsen who often make references to the African country Uganda in the chat section of his streams. The character is often associated with quotes such as "Do you know the way?", which originate from the 2010 Ugandan action film Who Killed Captain Alex? as well as for "spitting" on other users whom they feel do not know "de way".[62][63]

The meme was criticized for being racially insensitive;[62][64]Polygon described it as problematic.[64] The creator of the avatar, DeviantArt user "tidiestflyer", has expressed regret over how it has been used, saying that he hopes it is not used to annoy players of VRChat and that he enjoys the game and he does not want to see anyone's rights get taken away because of the avatar.[65] In response, the developers of VRChat published an open letter on Medium, stating that they were developing "new systems to allow the community to better self moderate" and asking users to use the built-in muting features.[66]

↑Sega of America. "Knuckles the Echidna". Sonic Characters. Sega of America. Archived from the original on 5 March 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050305082053/http://www.sega.com:80/sonic/globalsonic/post_allabout.php?article=soniccharacters. Retrieved 26 October 2017. "Knuckles was born alone on Angel Island, brought into this world to defend the Master Emerald. That is Knuckles' destiny and fate. If Sonic exemplifies the wind, then Knuckles is the mountain: stern and unmovable. Knuckles is quick to anger, but cool and determined in battle. Even though he considers Sonic his friend, the disposition of the Master Emerald is his ultimate concern. His determination to protect the gem from harm or ill use is set in stone and is unshakable. He is often envious of the adventurous lifestyle Sonic lives and the fame that has followed from Sonic's deeds, but Knuckles is well known in his own right, as a treasure hunter versed in the martial arts."

↑"Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, which gives Angel Island its power to float in the sky. He is the last of the Echidnas of the island's native people. His name comes from his powerful fists, which allow him to punch through rock and make him a skilled burrower and climber. He can also use his dreadlocks to glide for short distances." - Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.